


Blood Iron in the Sand, Blood Iron in my Hand

by FireThatFox



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abuse, Character Death, Deidara isn't a missing nin, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/M, Gaara hogs Sasori's student, Gaara likes getting his own way, Gaara/Sakura assassin, Human Experimentation, I like to watch people break, Kids killing villages, Learning as you go, Non-Mass, On the job training, Protective Gaara, Rasa and Sasori are brothers, Rasa has a plan, Sakura only has a dad, Sasori Sensei, Sasori is annoyed, Sasori won't share, Semi Maj. Char. Death, Tags will change as story progresses, This is a love story, Underage Kissing, Yashamaru is alive, ages? what ages?, and the age differences will vary as well, brief child abuse scene, demented, ends dark and bloody, if you love like that, minor bondage, more socialy apt Itachi, no one is the age they are in canon, non-con, obviously, out of canon events, physical body cloning, possessive Gaara, possessive Sasori, starts off innocent, yet - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:55:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 55
Words: 177,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23399566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireThatFox/pseuds/FireThatFox
Summary: She moved, he bled.  She smiled, lips tinged with blood, a whisper, "You should have known.""What makes you think I didn't?"  A crack, she screamed but no noise came, her fingers clawed the air...unforgivable..."Now...now you belong to me forever..."Drip. drip. drip."...bastard..."  her heart stopped."No dear...desire...exquisite perfection, covered in blood."  his voice filled the rushing void of her head...sweet oblivion.
Relationships: Gaara & Haruno Sakura, Gaara/Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura & Sasori, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura/Sasori, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 295
Kudos: 258





	1. Chapter 1

“What are you doing?” A little girl asked him, hanging over the side of the wall staring at him with huge green eyes.

“Nothing that concerns you.” He told her rudely, hoping she would leave him alone.

“It doesn’t look like nothing, it looks like you’re trying to move that rock with that puppet.” She told him pointing a small short finger at his wooden puppet.

“If you already know, why did you ask, you’re wasting my time little girl, go away.” The teen pushed her away from him rudely.

The little girl flailed her arms about trying to brace herself on the side of the wall but her hand slipped and she screamed.

Sasori’s head shot up to see the little girl slip over the side of the tall wall. 

“Idiot.” The word came out in an annoyed huff as he sent his chakra strings out of his fingers after the small girl, catching her by her ankle and flicking her back up over the side of the wall with one quick tug of his chakra.

The little girl landed in a small sweaty heap beside him. Jumping to her feet like a spring giggling.

“That was so much fun!” She jumped up and down.

“DO IT AGAIN!” She yelled at him playfully.

Sasori cocked his head to the side, “You’re a strange one. Weren’t you scared?” He asked her perplexed by her reaction to almost dying.

“No, there is nothign to fear from death, only failure. It was fun flying through the air.” She looked up at him, her grubby paws tangled in his robes.

“Hum.” He considered the little girl before him.

He hadn’t considered taking on a student before but this little girl was...different, like him.

Akasuna no Sasori, had graduated from the Suna academy at the young age of 7, had been promoted to a Chunin at the age of 8 and was now a Jounin.

“How old are you little girl?” Sasori asked her.

“Four!” She chirped.

She was loud. Sasori didn’t like loud things, but what could he expect from a girl with pink hair. He sighed.

“Are you enrolled at the academy yet?” He asked her.

“No, you can’t enroll until you’re 6.” She looked at him like he was an idiot.

“Let’s change that. What is your name?” He asked her, smirking at her exasperated look.

“Haruno. Haruno Sakura.” She told him smiling up at him, her eyes sparkling.

“Well Haruno Sakura, go home and tell your parents you will be starting the academy sooner than they anticipated. Meet me by the front steps of the academy tomorrow morning at 8 am.” He said turning away from her.

“Wait!” She yelled.

Sasori cringed, this wasn’t going to be easy.

“What is your name?” She ran up in front of him so he couldn’t leave.

“Akasuna no Sasori.” He told her.

“Red Sand.” Her lip quivered, “You’re that boy, the one who…” She gulped.

“Yes.” He said.

Crouching down to look her in the eye, “Does that scare you?” He asked her.

“No. It does not.” She grinned at him and took his ears in her small hands hugging her face to his.

He froze. No one had gotten this close to him...in...well, he wasn’t sure when but not for a very long time.

The little girl released his ears, “See you tomorrow morning Sasori Kun!”

“Sasori Sama! Call me Sama!’ He yelled after the little girl as she tore off through the sand littered streets of Suna.

He sighed...he hoped he wouldn't regret this. Sasori couldn’t help but smile, just a small smile as he walked to the academy to tell them about their new student that would be starting tomorrow morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist.


	2. Chapter 2

Gaara was waiting for his Uncle by the door when he came home.

“Uncle, will you train with me today?” Gaara asked his Uncle before he could close the front door behind him.

“Not right now Gaara, I have to write a formal request for my student.” Sasori walked past Gaara and down the hall toward his chambers.

Gaara followed.

“But Uncle, you said you would train with me today.” Gaara protested quietly, his Uncle didn’t like loud noises.

“Life is full of disappointment.” Sasori closed the door in his little nephew's face and sat down at his desk picking up a pen.

Sasori sighed as he felt the sand swirling under his door and over the floor to his desk. Gaara appeared beside him, looking up at him with wide teal eyes...pleading wide teal eyes.

“Look, not today, but tomorrow after she gets out of school you can meet my new student. I think she is the same age as you.” Sasori shooed him away with a hand turning back to his request.

“Really?” Gaara smiled a sweet smile, his eyes crinkling up in joy.

“Really, IF you go away and don’t come back until tomorrow afternoon.” Sasori said, smirking, he knew he had gotten rid of the brat for the rest of the night now.

“Thank you Uncle!” Gaara continued to smile dropping to the floor in a splash of sand and disappearing from the room.

Sasori tapped his pen against the paper in front of him...he needed to give good reason for taking on a student at such a young age and one that had civilian parents at that…

Hum...he wrote the first thing that came to his mind and folded the paper sticking it into an envelope. He walked to the window of his room and whistled through his fingers. Soon his hawk landed on his sill and he tied the missive to its neck. Giving it a small pet and a treat he sent it on it’s way, watching as it soared over the rounded tops of Suna and away.

Sasori hummed as he pulled several large books from his shelves and sealed them into a scroll. He would start her off with explaining the many uses of chakra and how to focus her chakra into strings. He didn’t know much about the girl except that she was stubborn, determined and fearless...that was good enough for him, the rest...they would have to learn together.

Sasori rose the next morning and dressed in his Jounin clothes and gear, the storage scroll tied to his belt. He saw the obnoxious pink hair before he had even come close to the academy steps. She was alone. Sasori frowned. He hadn’t wanted to meet the girl’s parents but had assumed they would be there, if only to speak to him and ask him why he wished to take their daughter on as a student.

“Where are your parents' girl?” He asked her without greeting her.

“Home. I only have a father, he’s a merchant.” She said in a rather subdued voice, so different from the energetic and confident voice he had cringed at yesterday.

“I see.” He looked her over. Her shoulders were slumped, her hair messy and her eyes were red.

“Come.” He commanded and started to walk up the steps of the academy expecting her to follow.

“What is it?” He asked her annoyed that she hadn’t followed him immediately.

“My father doesn't want me to be a ninja.” She said quietly.

Sasori looked down at the little girl and sighed. He had half expected this. Crouching down beside her, he took her chin in his hand and made her meet his eyes.

“Do you want to be a ninja?” He asked her seriously.

“YES!” She yelled in his face, her enthusiasm returning.

“Then I will do everything in my power to make sure you do.” He stood up and looked down at her.

Green eyes looked up at him with determination. He had made the right choice.

“Come.” He said and walked up the stairs of the academy not looking back this time, he knew she was following him.

Sakura sat in the chair beside Sasori and listened to him talk. It was clear the headmaster was afraid of the teen. It was also clear the teen thought very little of the way the man ran his school. As soon as they had entered, it seemed they had left.

“I’m not going to the academy?” Sakura asked Sasori as they walked down the academy stairs.

“No, it is abysmal the way they run their first year program. I will teach you myself. Where do you live?” He asked her once they had reached the bottom of the stairs.

“On the other side of the market, in the civilian section of course.” She cocked her head at him.

“I know that girl, I meant which house.” Sasori tried to be patient but she had looked at him like HE was the idiot, something Sasori was not used to.

“The third one from the left down the second to last street of the main market to the left of the liver stand, three paces north and then south east of the west gate.” She smirked at him.

Sasori had started walking when she had started talking but stopped halfway through her directions.

“That doesn’t even make sense, it is impossible to be north and then south east of the west gate.” He told her his eyes narrowing.

“Not if you look through the mirage at the end of the north gate.” She said simply.

The ‘Mirage’, that she spoke of was a heat sink where the sand rose and stirred creating friction, it formed a sort of mirror image and he smiled, she was just as clever as he had thought she was.

“Lead the way then girl, I wish to speak with your father.” He told her and she skipped off in front of him.

Sasori stood before the little hut Sakura said was her house. It was a slum, a wreck...disgusting to behold. There was no way he was setting foot in there.

“Go get your father girl, I wish to have a word with him.” Sasori let his arms hang at his side as he took in the other houses around them.

He was not very familiar with the civilian district but he knew this to be one of the poorest parts. If her father was a merchant, he was not a very successful one. He was contemplating the broken window with a critical eye when he heard shouting from inside the hut. He stepped forward a bit and listened.

A man’s voice could be heard yelling from the other side of the wall.

“I don’t care who is outside, I told you yesterday brat, you aren’t going to be no ninja or what not, you’re going to do your part and make a wage doing laundry like your no good mother did before she died and left me with you!” A loud smack was heard, a small cry of pain and a crash.

Sasori was inside the wreck of a hut in the blink of an eye and for the first time in his life his eyes were horrified at what he saw, more horrified than anything he had yet to see on the battlefield...because this, was his fault.

The little girl lay unconscious on the ground bleeding from the head. A table had been turned over and lay broken on the dirt floor. The same dirt floor that was absorbing the girl’s blood. A man, who must be her father, loomed over her little form with his foot drawn back to kick her in the stomach. Sasori sent his chakra strings out and wrapped them around his neck pulling back slightly, the man’s neck snapped and he fell to the ground dead next to his daughter.

Sasori moved toward the little girl, picking her up in his arms. “I’m sorry.” He whispered to her unconscious form.

“I’ll take you home, you’re going to live with me now.” Sasori walked out of the hut and back to the manse that he shared with the Kazekage and his family.

Sasori carried the little girl up the steps of the manse and through the home to his rooms. Using his chakra strings he opened the door to his room and set the little girl on his couch as he moved his sitting room furniture into his bedroom leaving the couch a small end table and a bookshelf.

Gaara peeked around the corner of his Uncle’s door and into the room. He had seen his Uncle carry the girl into their house and wondered if this was the student he had told Gaara he could meet today after she got out of the academy. He wondered if it was, why she wasn’t in the academy and why his Uncle was moving his furniture around and why was the girl sleeping…

Sasori turned to see Gaara standing by his door looking in at his student curiously.

“Come.” Sasori motioned for Gaara to come into the room.

“Watch her.” Sasori pointed to the girl and left the room to find medical supplies and blankets.

Gaara stood beside the couch and looked at the little girl with pink hair. She had a cut on her head. It had stopped bleeding but he could see it must hurt, he wished he could help her somehow. His other Uncle, Yashamaru said that when someone was cut or injured it needed to be cleaned. Gaara ran to his Uncle’s bathroom and got a cloth, wet it and ran back to the little girl on the couch.

Slowly, he began wiping her head where her cut was and soon her face was clean. He smiled at her clean face feeling good about himself when her eyes began to open.

‘So green’, was his first thought and then ‘I want to be friends with her’, was his second.

Sakura opened her eyes to see a little boy her age looking at her with big teal eyes and a cloth in his hand. Her head still hurt but she pushed herself up off of the couch she was laying on and looked around. She wasn’t at home and she wondered where she was.

“Where am I?” She asked the little boy who had been staring at her since she had opened her eyes.

“The Kazekage manse. I’m Gaara, what’s your name?” Gaara smiled at her and sat on the couch next to her.

“Sakura, the Kazekage manse? I have to go , my dad will be really mad at me!” She started to hop down from the couch but Gaara reached out for her.

“Wait!” He pulled on her arm and she stopped. He blinked. He had told her to wait and she had.

“My Uncle, he brought you here, he will expect you to be here when he gets back, he told me to watch you.” Gaara told her.

“Your Uncle?” Sakura sat back down on the couch beside Gaara and he smiled a shy pleased smile at her.

“Sasori of the Red Sand.” He clarified for her.

“Oh!” Sakura smiled brightly at the mention of Sasori’s name.

“I’m his new student,but, well I was going to be but my dad told me I couldn’t.” She said quietly, her voice dropping along with her smile.

“Why not?” Gaara didn’t understand, everyone always gave him everything he wanted, no one ever said no to him, unless it was when he wanted to sleep. They never let him sleep.

“He doesn’t want me to become a ninja, he wants me to do laundry and earn money.” She told him.

“What about your mom?” Gaara asked her.

“She’s dead, she died when I was born, my dad blames me for it, that she’s...gone. He hates me.” She looked down at her hands.

Gaara couldn’t speak for a moment. She was just like him. “I understand.” He said, his legs swinging back and forth over the couch.

Sakura looked over at the boy. He hadn’t said what everyone else said when they heard that her mother was gone. He didn’t lie and act like it was okay like some, or tell her it was her fault like her father did. He had just said that he understood.

“My mom is dead too. She died giving birth to me, I think...my father hates me for it too.” He said quietly.

Sakura opened her mouth in surprise but closed it quickly. She wouldn’t say she was sorry, she wouldn’t pity him like others pitied her or treat him differently, like most did to her, no she wouldn’t do that.

Reaching out slowly, she took his hand in hers. “I understand Gaara Kun.”, and laid her head on his shoulder.

Gaara’s breath caught in his throat. No one touched him, no one...was kind to him other than his Uncles. The other children ran from him, screamed, they didn’t put their heads on his shoulder and hold his hand or call him ‘Gaara Kun’.

“Will you...will you be my friend Sakura?” Gaara choked out through his nervousness.

“I would like that.” Sakura said softly closing her eyes and sighing deeply.

Sasori watched the two children from the door. His student certainly was an odd little one. Maybe this would be good for both of them, for her and Gaara, and maybe even him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what some of you are thinking...no this will not be like my other fic, 'In Which Many Things Gang Angly'.
> 
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tsukiko Hoshino!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claims are made and roles established

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday Tsukiko!

“You killed her father.” Rasa said more calmly than he felt. As he looked at his younger brother.

“Yes, and I have taken her on as my student.” Sasori added.

“You want her to live here as well?” Rasa needed clarification.

“Yes. She has already made friends with Gaara.” Sasori added cleverly.

“Has she.” Rasa frowned. Gaara didn’t have any friends.

“I wish to train them both. Together.” Sasori nailed the final nail in his coffin.

“Baki will be pleased to hear that.” Rasa was nodding now, quickly warming to the idea.

“She will have to go into the field with you, but may stay here with Gaara when you fight on the front lines.” Rasa started the process of negotiation with his younger brother.

Sasori nodded, “She will be treated as a member of the family, as my student and as Gaara’s only friend, I want her well cared for now that her father is gone.” ‘because I killed him’.

Rasa nodded.

“When I am gone to the front lines, she will stay with Gaara and be watched over with him by Yashamaru.” Sasori continued.

“I see no issue with that. I am sure Yashamaru will be pleased Gaara has a friend.” Rasa agreed.

“While you are here you are of course responsible for her.” Rasa said.

“Of course.” Sasori nodded.

“I will give you a stipend for her care as part of the main house, even though you are not of legal age, we will treat this as an adoption, by the whole family, but you will be her primary caretaker.” Rasa concluded their agreement.

“That is acceptable.” Sasori nodded.

In a less formal tone Rasa smiled and said, “I’m glad you’ve finally found a student Sasori, I was beginning to think you hated all of us except Gaara.”

Sasori didn’t bother bowing on his way out but he turned back to Rasa smirking, “I do.”, and left to check on his student whom he had left with Gaara in his room.

“Sasori Kun!” Sakura ran up to him holding a small sand ‘Something’, in her small hand waving it back and forth in front of his face.

“I made it!” She bounced up and down on her heels.

“It’s a cat.” He said tonelessly annoyed at this display of time wasted. 

He had told her to focus on her chakra flowing through her channels and to try to form strings with it while he was gone negotiating the terms of her stay.

“No!.” She yelled. “It’s Shukaku!” She beamed at him again waving the sand figure in front of him...again.

“It’s hideous.” He plucked the figure from her hands and threw it against the wall.

Sakura frowned and stomped over to the figure picking it up and stomping back over to him. “That was mean Sasori Kun!” She had her hands on her hips and was scowling at him.

“I told you to call me Sasori Sama.” He said.

She ignored him.

Sasori looked down at the sand figure in her hand. ‘Why didn’t it break?’. “Give that to me.” He pulled the sand tanuki from her hand and looked at it more closely.

“Did you make this with your chakra?” He asked her, stunned.

“You told me to practice, so of course I did!” She was still scowling at him.

She was four. Sasori looked down at her again. “Show me.” He commanded.

Her eyes grew wide and a smile broke out on her face, “Okay! Gaara Kun, can I have more sand please?” She asked Gaara who had been standing next to her watching her talk to his Uncle.

Gaara called forth some sand from his gourd and swirled it into a pile on the ground in front of her. Sakura sat down in her little rags and pressed her hands to the sand. To Sasori’s amusement the sand began to move and mold under the pressure of her infused chakra. When she was done, a small teddy bear lay on the floor in front of them.

“Interesting. Tell me how you did that.” Sasori crouched down to poke at the little bear and looked at Sakura.

“I envisioned it and pressed the warm stuff to my fingers and palms, and thought about what I wanted to make.” She grinned at him. “It’s a bear.”

“Try to do it again, but this time do not push it into anything, try to make it shoot out of the ends of your finger tips.” Sasori instructed her.

Sakura nodded and closed her eyes pushing her energy out of her arms into her hands into her fingers.

Sasori could see a slight glowing in her finger tips. “Try to envision, like you did with the bear, only not a bear but strings, little thin lines like sewing thread coming off the ends of your fingers girl.” 

She nodded.

“You can do it Sakura!” Gaara encouraged her.

Little by little tiny thin threads started to extend then retract from her fingers.

“Good, keep trying, think about it, think strings, visualize like with the bear.” Sasori repeated.

“I’m trying.” Sakura scrunched up her little nose and her fingers glowed and string shot out the ends and flew across the room.

She opened her eyes and they disappeared. She looked at Sasori. His eyes were fixed to the spots on the walls that had little pin pricks in them from her strings where they had shot out across the room and embedded themselves briefly into the wall.

“Good.” Was all he said to her but he was amazed. In all of Suna’s history, he had been the only member of the puppet corps. to form chakra strings like that on his first try. She was a prodigy. He had chosen well.

“We’re going shopping. As my student you represent me, as I am a member of the royal family, you also represent the family. The lord Kazekage has formally adopted you into our family. Remember that and hold yourself to our standards, that includes how you dress.” He informed her.

“I don’t like shopping.” Sakura crossed her arms and glared at him.

“Too bad.” He pushed her toward the door. “We’re going...now.”

“Can I come?” Gaara asked shyly.

Sasori hesitated for a moment, but he had told the Kazekage his student and Gaara were friends. They needed to be seen together.

“Yes, but you must behave, this is a requirement, this is not for fun.” Sasori warned the two four year olds as they squealed and ran out of the room holding hands all the way down the hall to the front door.

Sasori rolled his eyes and reminded himself it had been his idea to take her on as a student.

Gaara and Sakura continued to hold hands as they walked through the market. Sasori ushered them into a shinobi stall and bought three sets of shinobi gear for Sakura and five uniforms. Sakura frowned.

“What?” He asked her noticing her displeasure.

“It’s too much.” She looked at the big bags he was holding.

“This is what you need to become a ninja. You can’t learn properly if you don’t have the right tools.” He stated matter of factually and they left the stall to the many low bows of the merchant.

They stopped at another stall to pick up lunch, then carried their lunch and purchases back to the manse with them.

“Try these on.” Sasori handed the bags to her and she took them into his bedroom to change while Gaara set out their food in his sitting room, now her bedroom.

A moment later she came back out with her uniform on backward, her sash in her hair and her arm guards on her legs. Sasori stared at her while Gaara laughed.

“Gaara, bring me your sister.” Sasori told the youth and ushered Sakura back into his bedroom with instructions to ‘wait there’.

Temari arrived a few moments later with a bewildered look on her young face.

“I need you to show my new student how to wear shinobi gear, go dress her.” Sasori pointed to his bedroom.

Temari knocked on Sasori’s bedroom door then hesitantly stuck her head in. There was a young girl about Gaara’s age sitting on her Uncle’s bed trying to pull a shin guard up and over her elbow and Temari giggled. The girl froze and looked over at Temari, smiling sheepishly.

“Hi, I’m Temari.” Temari waved to the girl and stepped into the room.

“I’m Sakura.” Sakura pulled the shin guard from her arm and set it on the bed next to her.

“That goes on your leg Sakura Chan.” Temari took the shin guard from the bed and helped Sakura put it on her shin, then took the other and placed it on her other shin.

“Here, those go on your arms.” She took her forearm guards and tied them to her arms and smoothed her shirt and pants down.

Temari giggled and pulled Sakura’s sash from her head, “This isn’t for your hair. I’ll get you a headband if you like but this is to tie over your belt to hide your weapons from sight and to cover the top flap of your pouches.” Temari instructed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know and Sasori Kun didn’t tell me he just handed me the bags.” Sakura pouted.

Temari’s eyes widened at the familiar suffix Sakura used for her Uncle, then smiled.

“It’s okay Sakura Chan, you’re all set.” Temari had heard from the servants that her Uncle had taken on a student and had wondered what she was like. Everyone said she must be a prodigy or some child of an unknown genius but she just seemed like a nice little girl to Temari. Temari liked her.

“Thank you Temari Chan! Can I go back out there now, to be with Gaara Kun?” Sakura looked at herself in the mirror then turned back to Temari who was looking at her oddly.

“What is it?” Sakura asked, worried she had said something wrong to her new friend.

“You called my brother Gaara Kun, are you...friends with him?” Temari asked curiously.

“Yes!” Sakura shouted happily, surprising the older girl.

“Gaara’s never had a friend, I hope...you stay friends Sakura Chan.” Temari grabbed the girl’s hand, “Come on let’s go, my Uncle doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

The girls walked out into the sitting room that was now Sakura’s bedroom and found the two males in deep conversation.

“You are not to distract her, you are not to inhibit her training in any way, you are not to get too attached to her, she is my student, not your plaything do you understand?” Sasori was lecturing Gaara.

“Sasori Sama is the only person in the village that talks to Gaara that way.” Temari whispered out of the side of her mouth to Sakura.

Sakura nodded sagely but wasn’t quite sure she understood why that was.

“Excellent, you’re dressed.” Sasori stepped over to the two girls and looked Sakura over critically tucking in here and pulling on her clothes there. “Acceptable.”

Temari smiled at the girl and left the room at her Uncle’s wave of his hand. The red headed teen looked from the pink haired girl to his red headed nephew, “Come.”

The two children followed Sasori to the training grounds at the far end of the village, one hardly used anymore and set up targets for them.

Sakura had one target and Gaara had two targets.

“Until you are able to command your chakra strings at will you will only get one target to train with, Gaara has better control over his sand, so he gets two.” Sasori explained.

“Now, focus your chakra like you did this morning and hit your target. Gaara I want you to spin your sand into a thin straight line and hit your targets simultaneously at the same points on each.” He instructed and stepped back to give them space.

Sasori watched Sakura concentrate and struggle but she never whined, never gave up, only squished up her nose and concentrated harder. He suppressed the urge to smile at his students' determination.

Sasori had the children train until the sun went down. They had stopped only briefly for lunch and water and by the time he had called for them to stop for the evening both children were exhausted.

Yashamaru came to get Gaara from Sasori’s rooms and to meet the newest member of the family that evening. The children had eaten and had fallen asleep on Sakura’s couch together. Yashamaru looked at his brother horrified.

“You let him sleep!?” Yashamaru hissed.

“Does he look possessed to you?” Sasori countered sarcastically.

“No, but it is only a matter of time before the boy loses control you know that!” Yashamaru stomped over to Gaara to shake him awake but was stopped by Sasori’s chakra strings.

“What are you…” Yashamaru started to complain.

“I will watch them tonight.” Sasori narrowed his eyes at Yashamaru.

“But.” Yashamaru began to protest.

“Leave.” Sasori pulled the door to his rooms open with his chakra strings and pushed Yashamaru toward the door.

“If something happens, if he kills someone, it is on your head.” Yashamaru continued to spit and hiss on his way out the door.

“Yes yes, all that and more I’m sure.” Sasori looked down at the two sleeping children on his couch and pulled a single blanket up and over them.

“I know you’re awake Gaara. You understand the gravity of the situation don’t you? Maintain control and you can have Sakura as a playmate as well as a friend.” Sasori said quietly and walked to his bedroom, closing the door for the night.

Gaara opened his eyes and looked at the sleeping girl beside him and smiled, “Friend.” he whispered and cozied up to her a little more and fell asleep.

‘Mate’, Shukaku grinned inside of his head.


	4. Chapter 4

The morning came without bloodshed and the three Suna residents made their way to the training ground again for a long day of endurance training and instruction.

After two hours of the same target practice, both Gaara and Sakura were able to hit their marks with repetitive accuracy. Sasori was pleased with their progress. He set up another target for Sakura and another for Gaara.

“Like before you will be doing the same thing, only this time I want you to use one hand and one hand only for each target, simultaneously, like Gaara did earlier but with chakra strings, do you understand?” Sasori asked Sakura.

“Yes, Sasori Kun.” She smiled at him, her hands and fingers already glowing with chakra.

“Sama. Call me Sasori Sama.” He grits his teeth forcing his voice to remain calm and controlled.

Sakura continued to ignore his request and immediately started throwing her chakra strings out in front of her, hitting each of her targets. Her aim was off but she had more control over her strings than she had even a couple of hours ago. Sasori smiled as he moved to watch Gaara.

Gaara saw his Uncle smile and knew he was pleased with Sakura’s progress. Gaara didn’t quite understand why, she wasn’t doing anything he couldn’t already do with his sand, but he knew she was special because his Uncle didn’t like anyone but him and he could tell his Uncle liked Sakura.

At midday, a Genin stopped their lesson with a polite cough that earned him a foul look from Sasori that made him flinch.

“I have a request from the Kazekage Sasori Sama.” The Genin who was older than Sasori stuttered in his nervousness.

“Do you think me such a mediocre shinobi that I couldn’t sense your presence halfway here before you were even visible to my eye that you thought it acceptable to cough in my presence?” Sasori flicked his finger and his chakra string shot out and snapped against the Genin’s neck making his step back and yelp in pain.

“Pathetic.” Sasori spat the word out of his mouth in disgust.

“This, children, “ Sasori waved his graceful hand at the Genin who still had his hand to his keck, blood seeping between his fingers, “Is a perfect example of inadequacy. Do not be like him, it would disappoint me, greatly.”

Gaara and Sakura both looked at the Genin with disgust in their eyes, emulating Sasori. A slight tremble went through the Genin and he took an involuntary step backward.

“Fear,” Sakura whispered, she understood now.

“What’s that girl?” Sasori almost smiled again, it was becoming more and more difficult not to smile at his students' observations and antics.

“I said Fear Sasori Kun. He is afraid of you, us.” She pointed to herself then Gaara.

“Precisely. What is fear, Sakura?” Sasori did smile now, anticipating her answer.

“Weakness.” Sakura stared at the Genin who gulped visibly.

“Indeed it is girl.” Sasori turned to the Genin. “You are dismissed unless you wish to volunteer to be their moving target in the next step of their training?” 

Sakura started laughing and Gaara smiled at the Genin who turned white, a mischievous grin on his face.

The Genin ran, he even forgot to bow before he ran away.

“Pathetic,” Sakura mumbled watching the boy run away.

Gaara nodded looking at his friend fondly. She was perfect.

“Continue your target practice for another two hours then we will break for lunch and start on your endurance training.” Sasori started pulling a few scrolls from his pack and reading through them, setting them in different piles.

Gaara had gotten bored and had stopped his training to watch Sakura. He didn’t really need to train this was stuff he already knew how to do and easy. His Uncle knew that Gaara wanted to be with Sakura so he didn’t mind, besides it was nice to show his skills to someone who didn’t scream and run from him. He liked how her eyes sparkled and how she wanted to touch his sand when he moved it with his chakra.

He watched as she closed her eyes and shot her chakra strings out at the targets. He noticed she didn’t open her eyes until she felt the strings make contact with the board and he wondered why. He had always been told not to close his eyes when training or when in a battle, that the shinobi who closed their eyes were at a disadvantage. 

His Uncle had argued one time that that wasn’t true. That a shinobi who could battle with their eyes closed was actually at an advantage over a shinobi who could not. He trusted his Uncle Sasori, he was the only one who really talked to him and listened to his replies. Everyone else just pretended to listen and waited for their turn to talk, so he didn’t talk that much, there was no point.

Sakura listened to him when he talked though and he liked talking to her.

When they broke for lunch Sasori left them in Gaara’s room at the manse to meet with the Kazekage per the Genin’s request.

Gaara usually hated his room, before Sakura he had always been locked in it, alone. Before Sakura, his Uncle Sasori was rarely in the manse, choosing instead to work in his workshop outside of Suna.

Gaara hoped he would stay in the manse more now that Sakura was here. He didn’t like the idea of his new friend being away from him. In fact, the more he thought of someone taking her from him, the angrier he got.

Sakura looked up from her plate and looked at Gaara. He was frowning and a dark mass of evil was seeping from his body. She could feel it creeping across the floor to her.

“Gaara Kun, what’s wrong?” Sakura placed a small paw on his arm and his head jerked up to look at her.

“Gaara Kun, your eyes are...yellow.” Her voice wavered and Gaara felt his fangs growing in his mouth.

‘She’s scared now, just like everyone else.’ Shukaku warned him.

“That’s so cute Gaara Kun!” Sakura flung her arms around his neck and kissed the side of his cheek.

Gaara froze and blinked, his eyes turning back to their natural teal.

“Aww, they’re gone, how did you do it? I want to do it too!” She tried to concentrate her chakra to her eyes and got dizzy from the effort and fell over holding her head and laughed.

Gaara stared at her, she wasn’t afraid...she thought he was cute?

He could hear Shukaku snorting in his head.

“You can’t do it.” Gaara started to explain to her but was interrupted by his other Uncle Yashamaru who had come into the room unannounced.

“Don’t tell her Gaara!” Yashamaru snapped at the boy.

“Don’t yell at Gaara Kun!” Sakura jumped to her feet and scowled at Yashamaru.

“So, you’re the little street rat Sasori brought home with him.” Yashamaru looked her over.

“Dirty little urchin.” he sneered at her.

“I am not!” Sakura yelled.

“Of course you are, that’s why Sasori killed your father, he was worthless...just. Like. You.” Yashamaru said cruelly.

“Shut up!” Sakura balled up her fists pushing chakra to her fingers like Sasori had taught her.

Yashamaru saw her chakra and laughed at her. “You’re just a little kid, you can’t hurt me.” ...and he advanced on her, his hand raised.

Before Gaara could react, before Sakura knew what she was doing, she closed her eyes and all of her chakra flooded into her one fist and she lashed out against him, hitting him square in the abdomen.

Yashamaru wasn’t expecting it, he wasn’t prepared for it...and he failed to dodge her attack. Sakura’s tiny fist made contact with Yashamaru and he doubled up over the impact of her blow and went flying across the room, slamming into the opposite wall and failed to get back up or even move.

Sakura opened her eyes and started to cry. Gaara ran to his friend and hugged her, standing over her couched form protectively.

Sasori walked into Gaara’s room to find Gaara hugging Sakura to his little body petting her head while she cried.

“What happened?” Sasori took the last few steps into the room, that’s when he smelled it...death.

“Ah.” Sasori looked from Gaara to Yashamaru’s limp form.

“I never liked him anyway.” Sasori sighed and picked Gaara up, setting him on his bed and scooping Sakura up a moment later to wipe her eyes and sit her down beside Gaara.

“There are things that need to be taken care of. Stay here. I will return shortly.” He started to walk away but Sakura fisted her hands in his robes.

Sasori looked down at the girl. “Gaara won’t hurt you.” He began…

“I did it. I’m sorry.” She whispered.

Sasori stared at her. “You?”

Sakura hopped off of the bed and bowed her head low. “I killed Yashamaru, I accept your punishment.” She said in a clear strong voice.

Sasori looked down at his student’s bent head and shaking shoulders.

“Look at me girl.” He commanded.

Sakura lifted her head and Gaara grabbed her arm to stand beside her. She gently took her arm from his grasp and stepped forward to stand before Sasori alone. Her head rose and she looked him in the eye.

Sasori’s mouth twitched. ‘What a brave little thing’, he complimented her in his head.

“Sakura, did you kill Yashamaru, my brother by marriage?” He asked her, his voice steady.

“I did Sasori Kun.” She said, her voice loud and strong.

“Did he attack you?” He asked her.

“Yes, Sasori Kun.”

“Was it self defense?” He asked her.

“It was Sasori Kun.” She said her voice wavering just a bit.

“Good.” He said and pulled her into a small quick hug, releasing her as soon as he had embraced her and left the room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy almost Birthday Tsukiko...do you feel older? Do you feel the life force being sucked out of you with each passing day?
> 
> Dun dun dun.

“Your student killed our brother Yashamaru.” Rasa blinked at Sasori.

“Brother by marriage.” Sasori nodded.

“Why?” Rasa asked, he didn’t seem too upset and a part of Sasori was relieved, he wasn’t ready to leave the village quite yet.

“He was going to strike her, from what I could tell, it was self-defense. She is still learning to control her chakra.” Sasori explained.

“She’s...that strong?” Rasa was surprised.

“Apparently,” Sasori said, bored with the conversation now that he knew he wouldn’t be punished for Sakura’s accidental homicide.

“That's incredible,” Rasa said, his interest in the girl peaked.

“You think I decided to take her on as a student for the color of her hair?” Sasori said sarcastically.

“Your paperwork was less than detailed Sasori, you merely wrote down, ‘Because I wanted to’ when asked to explain in detail why you wished to take her on as a student,” Rasa said exasperated.

“Well, it’s the truth.” Sasori rolled his eyes and sighed annoyed that this was taking so long, he wanted to get back to Gaara and Sakura.

“I will send someone to dispose of the body. Try not to let her kill anyone else.” Rasa sighed, it was barely after noon and his day already seemed too long.

“Of course.” Sasori left without bowing or any form of farewell.

Sakura and Gaara were in Gaara’s room on his bed when he returned. Gaara had the girl in his arms and was petting her pink locks making soft cooing noises to her.

“Come, someone will be by later to dispose of that.” Sasori pointed to Yashamaru’s body by the wall.

“Am I in trouble?” Sakura sat up rubbing her eyes.

“No, you are my student, it was an accident.” He said and motioned them to follow him.

He turned back to her at the door, “Uh, try not to do it again though.” He added as an obvious afterthought.

“Yes, Sasori Kun.” She smiled at him pleased he wasn’t upset at her.

“Um. Sasori Kun?” She asked tentatively.

“Yes?” He could have bit his tongue he had planned on not responding to her unless she had addressed him as Sasori Sama.

“Did you really kill my father, is what Yashamaru said true?” She asked him, her green eyes looking up at him in earnest.

“Yes, Sakura.” He wouldn’t lie to her like his grandmother had lied to him. “I killed him.”

“Ah okay.” She looked down at her feet.

“Don’t look down. Look at me.” Sasori commanded.

Sakura looked up and met his eyes.

“He hurt you.” He said curtly and walked out the door. 

“I don’t let people hurt what’s mine.” He added as they left the manse.

“Neither do I,” Gaara said in perfect imitation of his Uncle, thier hands clasped tight in one another’s.

Sakura and Gaara followed him in silence.

“We will work on endurance training until dinner,” Sasori told them when they reached the training field again. “I want you to run around the training field until you feel like you are either going to pass out or throw up, go.” He waved them away and started pulling out scrolls again.

He had a mission in two days and wanted to sort through his scrolls for Sakura to look at while he was gone. He assumed she didn’t know how to read yet or if she did she couldn’t read very well so he wanted to pick out as many scrolls with drawings and diagrams on them as he could. He knew she was highly intelligent and didn’t want his time away from her wasted.

With Yashamaru dead the children would more than likely be left to themselves locked in Gaara’s room. No one else would watch over the young jinchuriki for fear of provoking Shukaku’s wraith so when Yashamaru went on a mission, Gaara was locked in his room and fed through a little open slotted door built into the wall.

Sasori had always scoffed at the idea of how the boy was treated but it wasn’t any of his business and before Sakura, he could really have cared less.

Sakura was here now though and he wanted her better taken care of than food shoved through a slot in the wall while he was gone. It was only for a few days but he didn’t think she, in particular, would like being treated like a small ferocious animal, even if he had found himself often thinking of her as such.

Perhaps he could leave her a puppet to practice with, just for fun. He doubted she would be able to move it, much less move it through the simple forms, but it would keep her occupied, she was a stubborn determined little thing. He pulled out the scroll that contained the little wooden puppet he had been working with when he had first met the girl two days ago. 

He had been trying to manipulate the puppet with fewer strings and less chakra, to gain the same results. She had interrupted him when he had been the most frustrated and he had accidentally knocked her off of the wall. Sasori could have moved the boulder with the puppet easily if he had been using more than two strings, but he wanted to be able to control more than his current ten puppets in battle and to do that he needed to use both fewer and thinner chakra strings.

His mind began to wander into the many different theories he wanted to try to perfect his new technique when he heard shouting from the other end of the training field. Sasori looked up and almost groaned. He saw a shock of pink hair dragging red with two sandworms chasing after them.

Sasori started to walk in the direction of his students and watched them run across the field. Sakura must have seen him because she turned on her heel abruptly at ninety degrees and made a mad dash toward him, the two sandworms hot on her heels weaving thier way through the sand. Sasori watched and had to admit she could run pretty damn fast for a four-year-old who was still a bit uncoordinated but he knew it wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun two sandworms.

He stood with his feet apart and his eyes tracking the movements of his students and shot his chakra strings out in a straight line skimming over thier heads and piercing one of the sandworms through its brain and the other through the side immobilizing it temporarily.

Sakura fell to the ground, literally at his feet, breathing hard with Gaara’s robe still clutched in her fist, the boy laying half on half off of her legs where he too had collapsed.

“Let’s try that again,” Sasori said calmly pulling the girl to her feet and then the boy.

“Again?” Sakura continued to breathe heavily clutching her side in pain.

“Correct, pay attention Gaara, it’s time to run again,” Sasori smirked and withdrew his chakra string from the wounded sandworm who immediately started charging the children at his feet.

Sasori leaped up into the air and on top of the nearest building’s roof and yelled, “You’d better get going.”, down to his students who screamed and started running again across the sand, at a slightly slower pace, followed by the injured sandworm.

Sakura and Gaara collapsed onto her couch as soon as thier knees hit the cushions and they promptly fell asleep.

Sasori let them sleep while he ordered food for them to his rooms and went into his bathroom to take a shower. They were still asleep when he came back out, but the servants had come with thier meal and had laid it out on the table before the two sleeping four year olds.

Instead of waking them, he covered thier food back up and headed for the Kazekage’s library to find a few scrolls he didn’t have in his personal collection for Sakura to read while he was gone. When he got back to his rooms the children were still asleep only now they were wrapped up in one another snuggling into the pillows on one end of the couch.

Sitting down at the other end Sasori uncovered his dish of food and began to eat while he separated the scrolls into three small piles, one pile for each day. He had only planned on being gone for two but the mission dictated three, so he had planned for three just in case.

Sasori rose from the couch and opened the sliding glass door to his sitting room and let in the cool desert evening air. Sakura began to stir as the colder air hit her skin and she tried unsuccessfully to burrow deeper under Gaara as he slept beside her.

“Get up.” Sasori shook her awake. “Time to eat, then bath, then bed.”

Sakura yawned and blinked at him. “Eat?” She sniffed the air like a truffle pig and her eyes opened wider.

Sasori’s mouth twitched but he suppressed the sudden urge to laugh. He watched as she pulled Gaara up by the arms and propped him up against her as he swayed back and forth.

“Time to eat Gaara Kun.” She tapped him playfully on the forehead with one hand and shaking him awake with the other.

“Mmm.” Gaara made the small noise in the back of his throat and blinked his eyes two or three times before they settled on Sakura.

“Time to eat.” She said again and pointed to the food.

Gaara nodded and picked up his chopsticks and poked at his uncovered dish. Sakura laughed as she ate her own food poking him in the side every now and then trying to wake him up but he kept falling back asleep.

“Let him sleep, you eat your food then bathe,” Sasori said moving from the sitting room to the bathroom pulling out soap and towels for her, setting them on the counter.

Sakura left Gaara to sleep while she took a bath, then padded back out into the sitting room in her new pajamas the servants had laid out for her. Sasori looked her over in approval, he was pleased to see that Rasa had kept his word about treating her like a family member and had the servants get her regular clothes for all occasions.

Her dresser and storage closet was supposed to be installed tomorrow and a trunk with the family crest on it for her shinobi gear was to come the following day.

He had given strict instructions to the servants she was to have anything she wished for providing it wasn’t too dangerous, alive or poisonous.

“Leave the food out. Gaara will eat when he wakes up. If he wants a bath he can use his own. I’m going to bed.” Sasori left the room without waiting for a reply and shut the door to his bedroom.

Sakura pulled the sliding glass door shut and locked it. She had seen Sasori do the hand seals to protect the room but she didn’t know how to do them yet. She wondered if he could do them from his bedroom, and then wondered how far away you had to be to do them. She would ask him tomorrow.

Gaara woke up to a small tapping on his face. His eyes opened to see Sakura’s fingers gently tapping his cheek where her little hand was curled up around his. She was twitching. Gaara watched her eyes moving under her lids and wondered if she was dreaming. He wondered if she was dreaming, what she was dreaming about.

He continued to watch her and noticed not only her fingers were twitching but her foot was as well and it made him smile. He wrapped his hands around hers and stopped her fingers from twitching. Looking down he wrapped his foot around her foot hooking it at his ankle to stop her foot from twitching. It was then, she began to moan. Gaara looked down at her confused, she sounded like she was in pain.

“Sakura Chan?” He called out to her releasing her hands and her foot.

“Sakura?” He patted her face to wake her up.

“Stop, please.” She whimpered.

“Sakura?” Gaara called to her again more urgently.

“No, I’m sorry.” She started to thrash and it scared him.

Gaara scooted off the couch and ran to his Uncle’s bedroom door and banged on it calling his name.

Sasori opened the door a moment later, a look of frightful murder in his eye that stilled when he heard Sakura moaning. Pushing Gaara aside he went to the couch and picked the little girl up in his arms coaxing her to wake.

“Stop!” She moaned louder, her eyes screwed shut.

“I’m sorry!” She flailed her arms one almost hitting Sasori int he face.

Sasori wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know a lot about children, him being a young teen, he didn’t like children. Sasori looked around the sitting room for inspiration. Finding none he turned his head back tot he girl who was pulling against his hold and mumbling in her sleep.

He slapped her, hard.

Sakura’s eyes snapped open and she turned her head to stare up at Sasori.

“Sasori Kun?” She asked, her voice weak.

“Stop dreaming.” He commanded, arranging her more comfortably on his lap.

“Are you okay Sakura?” Gaara took one of her hands in his and held it tightly.

“What happened?” She asked looking from one tot he other.

“Nothing, you were dreaming.” Sasori moved her off of his lap and set her back on the couch covering her up with a blanket. 

“Go back to sleep, you have training in the morning.” He placed a hand on her forehead and left her to Gaara who immediately snuggled up to her on the couch after he left.

“What were you dreaming about Sakura?” Sasori heard Gaara whisper to the little girl as he shut the door to his bedroom.

“Bad things, I don’t want to talk about it.” She whispered back and closed her eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

Sasori left for his mission two days after Sakura’s nightmare with instructions to train in what he had already taught her, to read the scrolls he had left her and to not kill anyone.

“Do you want to start reading or practice your chakra string, Sakura Chan?” Gaara asked her after they had finished their breakfast.

Sakura was sitting beside Gaara on his couch. Rasa had told the servants to lock both of the children in the room together. He knew Gaara could get out if he really wanted to but hoped his new playmate would help keep him both calm and occupied.

“I would like to read, what do you want to do Gaara Kun?” She asked him.

“I want to do whatever you want to do, Sakura Chan.” Gaara picked up the first scroll and handed it to her.

“Do you know how to read Sakura Chan?” He asked her as she unfurled the scroll and laid part of it out on the table before them.

“Of course, do you?” She asked him and he nodded.

His Uncle Yashamaru had taught him how to read, he had told him it would help him when he had to stay awake at night, that it would give him something to do. Gaara had spent hours reading and writing and practicing until he could read almost anything. He knew from his Uncle and his siblings that it was unusual for a four year old to read as much as he did and wondered why Sakura knew how to read and if she could read as well as he could.

“Would you like to read it together, Gaara Kun?” She asked him, smiling sweetly.

Gaara nodded, he had never had anyone to read with. His Uncle Yashamaru never read to him or with him, he had taught him the basics and left him on his own to learn the rest.

Gaara moved closer to her on the couch and she began to read out loud for both of them. Gaara listened to the sound of her voice, it was light and soft, and he knew he would never get tired of hearing her read to him. Sakura was a very good reader as good of a reader as he was and he was pleased his friend was so talented.

When she had stopped reading to look at one of the diagrams he asked her, “How do you know how to read so well Sakura Chan? My Uncle Yashamaru told me that most children don’t learn how to read until they are older and not as well as you.” 

Sakura didn’t answer him right away. She had never told Gaara about her father, only that he blamed her for her mother’s death. She took a moment to consider her answer.

“My father was gone a lot and I got bored being alone so much. One of our neighbors gave me a book and I taught myself how to read it by sounding words out, outloud against the words I knew how to speak. When I didn’t know a word, I would trace it with my pencil onto paper and ask people in the market to tell me, and I would remember, for next time.” She said looking down at her hands.

“You were alone a lot?” Gaara asked her.

“Yes.” She looked up at him and smiled, “It’s okay though, I didn’t want my father at home, and it doesn’t matter anymore because I have you!” She hugged him then, smiling wide and kissed him on the cheek.

“I have you too, I’m not alone anymore either!” He hugged her back and they tumbled to the floor giggling.

They laughed and giggled until their sides hurt, sprawled out on the floor of the room grinning at one another like normal children do. They were so caught up with one another neither of them had noticed the Anbu watching them from Gaara’s balcony.

Sakura rolled over onto her tummy and poked Gaara in the forehead giggling. “Want to keep reading Gaara Kun?” She asked him.

Gaara nodded and sat up, pulling her up with him and climbing back onto the couch.

“It’s your turn to read now.” She moved over so he would be in front of the scroll.

“Okay.” Gaara leaned forward and started to read to Sakura like she had read to him.

After they had read the first scroll they decided to take a small break and make art out of Gaara’s sand using their chakra. Gaara was much better at it than Sakura was but she kept trying and soon she could make little figures almost as fast as he could. They liked it because they were training with their chakra and having fun at the same time.

The Anbu watched them until they stopped to eat their lunch. Leaping up onto the roof of the Kazekage manse the Anbu shook his head. He had been apprehensive when asked to watch the young lord and the new addition to the family, he wasn’t a babysitter. When the Kazekage explained the unusual nature of the girl, and that the reason he wanted him to watch them was to ascertain the extent of their new relationship, he understood the Kazekage’s reasoning much better. Now that he had watched them and saw them interact, he understood completely.

Rasa had explained the girl had formed chakra strings on her first try, that she had learned in less than 48 hours of training with Sasori to extend those strings to hit targets with both speed and accuracy, she was in short...another prodigy. That in itself was impressive, the Kazekage told the Anbu , but what he really wanted to know was how attached his son was to the girl, and what kind of relationship they might be forming with one another.

The masked Anbu dropped from the roof to the door of the Kazekage’s office and knocked once.

“Enter.” Rasa’s voice came through the door.

“Kazekage Sama. I have returned with the report you requested.” The Anbu kneeled before the kage, head bowed.

“So soon?” Rasa sat forward on his desk.

“Yes Kazekage Sama, the children are enamoured with one another, they read to one another from the scrolls Sasori Sama left them, they take turns. When they took a break from reading they trained in chakra control by forming Lord Gaara’s sand into toy figures, the girl...her chakra control is...impressive Sir.” The Anbu reported.

“She can read? She can read as well as Gaara can?” Rasa was interested.

“Indeed Sir, she reads exceptionally well, as well if not better than Lord Gaara.” The Anbu reported dutifully.

“Continue.” Rasa motioned the man with his hand.

“After they laughed and talked while they made sand figures they went back to reading, then took a break for lunch. They are eating together now.” He concluded.

“Gaara, was he annoyed with the girl at all, did he lash out or get angry even in the slightest with her?” Rasa asked pointedly.

“Not at all Sir, Lord Gaara he...adores the girl, it is obvious, they are friends.” The Anbu bowed again low, done with his report.

“I see. Go back, watch them for the rest of the day and into part of the night. I want to know about every smile, every action and interaction, leave nothing out, but do not be seen. I do not want my son to know I am watching him with his new friend, or Sasori.” Rasa commanded.

“Yes Kazekage Sama.” The Anbu left the Kazekage’s office and made his way back to Gaara’s balcony to watch the children as instructed. 

He didn’t mind, it was fascinating to watch. He had been there the last time Gaara had lost control, he had seen the anger and the hate erupt from the boy, had seen the tail and the arms of Shukaku lash out, maim and kill. If this little girl could keep the boy calm, could keep him from lashing out and destroying their village, he didn’t mind watching them.

Sakura and Gaara spent the rest of the afternoon reading to one another from the scrolls Sasori had left them finishing all three days worth of scrolls the first day, trained with their chakra control, extending their training to make the small figures they created move around with heir chakra before Sakura’s fell apart. They both agreed they would work on that first thing the next morning as part of their training.

After dinner they sat beside one another in Gaara’s bed and read from one of the storybooks on his shelf about an evil pirate who stole little kids away in the night and sold them to far away lands never to see their home or families again.

“I wonder why the children in these stories never try to get back home or to escape, they just accept their fate, it is ridiculous. Only one of them escaped and made it back home to marry her childhood friend.” Sakura said as she put the book on Gaara’s nightstand and laid down in his bed next to him.

“Maybe they don’t want to go home?” He suggested.

“I understand why some children might not want to go home but in the story they seem so happy, their homes are so nice. If I had a nice home I would do anything to get back to it.” Sakura said ruefully looking up at Gaara’s ceiling that was painted with clouds and stars to look like the night’s sky.

“You have a good home now.” He said reaching out for her hand and pulling her to him.

“You’re right I do, and if an evil pirate came and stole me away I would do everything I could to get back to you Gaara Kun.” Sakura smiled at him in the dark and snuggled up close to him under the covers.

“I wouldn’t let anyone take you from me. I would kill anyone who tried to hurt you no matter who it was.” Gaara growled and Sakura laughed.

“You sound just like I imagine Shukaku sounds like.” She giggled and pulled the covers up over them more so they were tucked under her chin.

“I mean it Sakura Chan. I’ll protect you and when I get older I’ll marry you, and take care of you like in the story.” He promised her.

“I am going to train hard, Gaara, I will learn how to protect myself. I won’t need you to take care of me but I still want you to be my friend.” She smiled at him in the dark.

“I’m already your friend.” Gaara whispered.

“And I’m yours.” Sakura closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

“You’re mine.” Gaara nodded hugging her in her sleep, his eyes open looking up at his ceiling.

The Anbu watched for another hour but the young Lord simply stayed in bed with the girl holding her tightly while she slept. Jumping down from the window to the street he made his way to the Kazekage’s office to make his last report for the night. The Kazekage was expecting him and the doors opened in a small flurry of golden sand before he could knock.

“Tell me.” Rasa commanded and he did.

He told them about their plans for tomorrow about their story and what the two children had said to one another, how...touching it was to know there was this side of the young Lord and how hopeful it made him for the future of the village. 

The Kazekage had nodded his thanks and dismissed the man. Gaara had become increasingly more difficult to control the older he got and Rasa worried when the next time the boy would lose control and who he would kill in his rampage. Rasa hoped the girl's calming presence wasn’t temporary, he hoped that she was the solution to the problem he wasn’t sure how he was going to solve. Before Yashamaru had been killed by the girl, they had agreed he would kill Gaara before the next full moon, but Yashamaru had died, leaving Rasa with little hope for the future. 

It weighed on the Kazekage’s mind, the choice he had made before Gaara’s birth, he had done it for the village and it had cost him his wife. He didn’t want it to cost him his son as well, no matter how much he despised Gaara, he did love him. Gaara was the last gift his wife had given him and he was trying to honor the promise he had made her before she had died, to do everything he could to save Gaara.

If that meant keeping a little pink haired hellion under his roof as his playmate, then that is what he would do. There was only one problem. Sasori. Rasa knew his brother. Sasori was possessive of anything he believed to be his, and Sakura was his student. He had seen that same possessive streak in his son Gaara, and Gaara clearly saw the girl as his friend. Rasa only hoped that the girl would be able to be the line between them both as she grew older. He would see that she had every advantage that she could, starting with more training scrolls.

Rasa left his office, passing his Anbu and waving away his assistant. He wasn’t sure why but he thought it best that no one knew how talented the child really was. He trusted the Anbu he had watched his son and the girl and knew he wouldn’t say anything but that is as far as he wanted that knowledge to go. 

If others knew, they might not only try to both use the girl against Gaara but use her against his village. She was still young, vulnerable, impressionable, he had no doubt his brother could train her into a cold blooded killer but he wanted her to be more than that, for his son. She would be his own personal bodyguard and perhaps more as she got older. 

Like Sasori, Rasa liked to plan for the future with every possible outcome in mind, but unlike his brother he had the freedom to actually make it happen, something his brother didn’t seem to understand.

If Sasori wasn’t so damn talented, he would have exiled him long before he had made Jounin, the boy was far too clever and posed a decent threat to Gaara’s future. It was a dangerous game all of them were playing. Sasori and Rasa had been players since birth, just like Gaara, just like Kankuro and Temari, and now Sakura. The difference was both Rasa and Sasori were aware of the stakes, the children weren’t...yet.


	7. Chapter 7

They reminded him of ants. The small insignificant insects that are constantly moving, constantly collecting for nothing, to fail inevitably at life, at existing because there would always be someone or something like him. Something that was so significantly, more, a different level, a different standard. In simplicity...superior.

He pulled the scroll from his waist and called forth his puppets, ten, a moderate number by his current standard. No more, no less was needed. This was killing at its most crass, there was no art to it, no meaningful justification...he simply had a job to do, he didn’t care if they lived or died. It didn’t matter to him, it didn’t matter to the world in general. It only mattered to the other small and insignificant village that was hiring his village to eliminate this one.

“Pathetic.” His chakra strings shot out from his fingers. 

It was hardly worth the effort, his effort. This was below him. The money wasn’t even worth it to him. He couldn’t fund what he truly wished to do, his true art. This was just...motion. Unfulfilling and pointless...he hated it, them, all of them.

Sasori thought of the girl. Potential. He thought of the boy. Adequate.

His mind began to wander as he slaughtered the villagers effortlessly. There wasn’t a whiff of chakra among them and he was getting bored. A flick here a tug there, they were almost all dead. He would get to leave soon. He wondered how well Sakura and Gaara were getting along and hoped that she wasn’t dead when he got back. He thought about that for a moment. 

Was it wise of him to have left her locked up in Gaara’s room with him… he shrugged. It was a good test.

‘Ah’, the last breath expelled, good, no more crying, no more begging, it was all white noise to him at this point anyway but the women, the women had a scream or a whimper that cut through his head sometimes, he hated it. Sasori turned to leave when his toe touched something soft, he looked down, a doll. It was clean and well kempt. He picked it up and tucked it into his pouch. Maybe Sakura would like it.

He would make camp past the next village for the night then leave for home in the morning. Two days, just as he thought. He smirked, they always underestimate him.

Gaara woke before Sakura and found the stack of scrolls on his desk with a note telling him they were for him and his new friend. Gaara turned the note over and over but it didn’t say who the scrolls were from. He hesitantly picked up the first scroll, the one closest to the top and flipped it open. It was the next step in chakra control. He picked up the next one and opened it, it was the next lesson in chakra strings and puppetry. Gaara wrapped the scrolls back up and looked around his room, he wondered who had put them there and how they knew what they had been studying.

He could hear footsteps approaching his room and waited by the little door the servants used to slide food in and out of his room. He had been glad to see they had been giving him enough food for both him and Sakura, his Uncle must have told them she would be with him.

The little door opened and a tray was pushed inside with two plates and cups. Before the door could close Gaara bent down and looked out the door to see the face of a teenage girl looking back at him. She gasped.

“Thank you for bringing us breakfast.” Gaara thanked her politely and waved.

The girl merely gasped again and stared back at him in horror, slammed the little door shut and ran away. He could hear each footfall as she ran down the hall and away from him. He frowned. Sakura had told him people liked it when you thanked them for doing things for you, but that servant didn’t seem to like him thanking her at all. He would have to ask Sakura about it when she woke up, perhaps he had done it wrong, he shrugged. Sakura would know.

Gaara moved back over to his bed pulling the breakfast tray with him. He sat on the end of his bed, his little legs swinging back and forth over the raised sides. He liked his bed, even though he hadn’t used it much before Sakura came into his life. It was built into the wall and hung over the down steps into the man part of his room like a small cliff.

When he would get really bored he would crawl under his bed and peek out and pretend he was a big bad monster and it was his cave. He would use his sand to lash out at his toys, ripping them apart and knocking them over, pretending they were there to slay him. His teal eyes moved over the small lump under his covers, he didn’t have to pretend anymore, or maybe Sakura would want to pretend with him. He was just happy he wasn’t alone anymore.

Gaara sat beside her on the bed and poked her until she woke up. He was tired of waiting for her to wake up on her own, he wanted to talk to her now. 

She yawned and rolled over onto him squishing him into the bed and pretended to fall back asleep.

“Sakura Chan.” Gaara’s muffled voice came out from under one of her legs.

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m still asleep.” She said in a sleepy voice, but the facade was ruined by the snicker that escaped her lips soon after he started huffing and puffing.

“Sakura Chan, I can’t breathe,” Gaara complained.

“You can talk.” She rolled off of him and laughed.

“You tried to kill me.” He pouted.

“You woke me up.” She poked him in the head right on his kanji.

“I missed you, and you were sleeping forever.” He complained.

“I was not, it’s dawn.” She pointed to the window.

“I’ve been up forever though.” He pushed the tray of food toward her.

“You just don’t sleep like normal people.” She huffed but stopped when she saw his face.

“I’m sorry Gaara Kun. I didn’t mean it like that, you are normal. I just meant you don’t sleep as much as I do.” She amended.

“You’re not normal.” He grinned at her, her previous words forgotten.

“Let’s eat, then practice with our chakra.” Sakura picked up her bowl of rice and chopsticks.

Gaara told her about the new scrolls on his desk and she hummed her interest as they ate.

After breakfast, they moved the scrolls with them to the couch and started reading to one another again. When they finished reading the second scroll on puppetry Sakura hopped down from the couch and pulled the small puppet Sasori had left her from her bag and brought it over for Gaara to see.

“Can you read me the points on the puppet I’m supposed to attach my strings to Gaara Kun please?” Sakura asked him as she concentrated her chakra to her fingertips.

“Attach strings one and two to each leg, then strings three and five to each arm, leaving an available string either four and six or seven and eight for the main body.” He read out loud for her.

“That seems like an awful lot of string for one small puppet.” She looked down at her hands and followed the strings to her puppet.

She was using six strings for one measly little puppet. She frowned. It seemed like a waste of chakra to her. Sakura thoughtfully moved her fingers and the arms and legs twitched with every flick, every pull or tug and she thought…’ why not limit the main string to the body where it is needed the most and lesser chakra strings to the arms and legs which will fluctuate with use anyway.’...

Sakura stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth and adjusted the chakra she was infusing for each string. She could feel her chakra flow back into her and was satisfied with her discovery. 

“I could probably wield another puppet with the same amount of chakra they were telling me to use on this one.” She turned to Gaara who had been watching her.

“It’s too bad we don’t have another puppet.” She sighed and started moving the puppet around the floor like the diagrams in the scroll directed.

Gaara watched her with intense interest as she slowly moved the puppet from the left side of the room to the right side, walking it slowly back and forth. By lunchtime, she could make it skip back and forth, and by dinner she had it running back and forth.

“You’re amazing Sakura Chan!” Gaara looked at her wondrously.

“The book says not to be discouraged if it takes you months to do what you did in one day!” Gaara smiled at her and she grinned back at him.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Gaara Kun.” She hugged him, letting her chakra strings go so that her puppet fell once again lifeless to the ground.

Gaara smiled at his new best friend and helped her put their things away and prepare for dinner. When they had come out of his bathroom from washing their hands their food tray was inside the door by the wall and Gaara was reminded of what had happened that morning.

He told Sakura what had happened while they ate and she told him to try again, and to keep trying until the servant smiled back. He nodded unsure of this advice, but he would try it. Sakura said it didn’t hurt anyone to keep trying, but if it worked it would be worth the extra effort.

They slept together again that night, Gaara lay flat on his back, Sakura curled up in a half ball at his side, holding hands. Sakura always fell asleep first but Gaara found that if he closed his eyes and just listened to Sakura’s breathing Shukaku stayed quiet. Gaara wondered if Shukaku was listening to her breathe as well. It was peaceful, and soon Gaara found his eyes heavy and his body relaxed. With Sakura next to him, he could sleep.

The masked Anbu jumped from the balcony again and headed to the Kazekage’s office to give his report.

Sasori walked through the gates of Suna shortly after midday. He would have been home sooner but he had stopped at his cave to drop off a few bodies to experiment on. In the last few months, he had come closer and closer to perfecting his craft and wanted to practice on maybe one or two more corpses before unsealing the third Kazekage’s remains.

First, he would stop home and check in on his student, perhaps teach her how to connect her strings to her puppet and let her practice while he saw to the corpses.

The door to the Kazekage’s office was open. Sasori walked in without knocking. Rasa was sitting behind his desk waiting for him.

“Ah Sasori, brother, welcome back. Your mission was a success I assume.

“Of course.” Sasori handed him his written report and turned to leave, but Rasa stopped him with a word.

“Your student, Sakura right, she is quite remarkable. I fully understand why you chose to take her on as a student despite her genetic background and age.” Rasa said casually waiting for the fire.

It was just as Sasori thought, the man had sent someone to watch his student while he was gone. An Anbu perhaps.

“I am aware of her talents.” Sasori turned again to leave but Rasa stopped him again.

“She not only formed little sand toys with her chakra but made them move, on their own with her chakra, without using strings,” Rasa said, dropping the comment with all the weight he had hoped to.

“Did she.” Sasori's mind began to imagine all the possibilities.

“The puppet you left with her, did you expect her to figure out how to manipulate the puppet with her new ability? She used one hand Sasori, she commanded the puppet with one hand.” Rasa was leaning forward in his desk, his tone betrayed the steady veneer he was clearly trying to portray.

Sasori observed his brother, he could see the man’s thoughts whirling in his head.

“Need I remind you, she is my student. I found her. I am responsible for her. She belongs to me.” Sasori wanted Sakura’s position in the manse clear. No loopholes, no grey areas.

“Just as possessive of the girl as my son I see. He has been sleeping with her while you were gone. Both nights Sasori, without any disturbances.” Rasa said with a small smile.

“I’ve never seen the boy so attached to anything before, or anyone,” Rasa added.

This was bad. The tension between the two men was thick and ominous. Sasori could have kicked himself. He ought to have known Rasa would try to use Sakura as a security blanket for Gaara. He hadn’t counted on the boy taking to her so quickly, so sincerely. Gaara hated people almost as much as he hated people, it is why they got along.

“She is so much more than a fail safe. I will not allow you to reduce my student to a security fail safe for that boy.” Sasori stood up straighter, his arms at his sides...ready.

“You misunderstand me Sasori.’ Rasa considered the man before him. “I want her to be so much more to him than that. I want to train her how to manipulate sand.”

For maybe the second time in his life, Sasori was shocked, then livid.

“No.” He turned then, and walked out of the office, ignoring Rasa’s raised voice telling him to be reasonable.

Sasori knew this wasn’t the end, he knew Rasa would try again to steal his student from him. He needed to speak with her, to find out what had happened while he had been gone, but he doubted the children knew anyone had even been watching them. It was time Sasori taught Sakura and Gaara both, how to sense, locate and identify chakra.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More than a student, an apprentice. Gifts tell you a lot about a person...

Sasori stared at Sakura and Gaara after they had finished telling them all they had done and accomplished while he had been gone. They showed him the scrolls that Gaara had found on his desk and Sasori had thumbed through them checking them for traces of chakra. Rasa. So, he had already made his move.

Sasori had Sakura show him the puppet and what she had learned. She could indeed manipulate the wooden puppet with only one hand and only using three chakra strings...he was amazed.

They showed him how they formed and moved the sand without strings, a feat of achievement for Sakura and Sasori began to understand why Rasa wanted to train her in sand manipulation so badly. 

It was a rare talent, almost unheard of. It was also genetic, he could claim her as a blood daughter and no one would challenge him, effectively displacing Sasori from her life.

Gaara had Shukaku in him, that is why he could manipulate his sand, with his added natural talent and genetics, it was expected of him. 

Sakura, however, was a civilian born, had no shinobi blood in her that anyone knew of, it was unheard of. She wasn’t a natural, it didn’t come to her easily, he could tell she was struggling but she was doing it. Sasori knew with practice, and overtime if she built up her chakra reserves she would be able to master it.

This opened many more possibilities for him and his student, but infinitely more dangers. Sasori realized Rasa was only going to be the beginning of the dangers that would try to influence and control his young student. He had chosen her, he had killed her father, she was his to guide and protect, he had a responsibility to her now.

He would need to watch her more closely. She would accompany him on his missions from now on, he would no longer risk her being alone under Rasa’s care. Adjustments would be made to her room. The door would be taken out and widened into more open leeway, he would need to be able to see her at all times. 

Tonight, after dinner he would take her to his cave outside of Suna, they would sleep there for the night and come back to train with Gaara in the morning.

For now, they would train. He would get her another puppet for her other hand and teach her how to move two puppets at once. They would work on that for the rest of the day.

Gaara watched Sakura move her puppets one at a time, then under Sasori’s careful eye, at the same time, slowly, until after lunch she could manipulate both puppets to walk at the same pace at the same time, by dinner she had them skipping together hand in hand as she giggled and he clapped.

Sasori was pleased with her progress, she was far exceeding his initial expectations.

The three ate dinner together, Sakura asking him questions about protection spells and how to cast them, how far you had to be away to cast them effectively and when he was going to teach them to her.

“You will need to strengthen your current abilities first and foremost, then we will move onto hand signs of a basic nature, then seals. Chakra depletion is a very serious factor in a shinobi’s overall longevity. If you deplete your chakra too much or too fast it can have long lasting devastating results, even death.” He explained.

“I am going to teach your some basic sensory techniques using your chakra strings tomorrow.” He told her, “And teach you how to use your sand to sense others around you.” He told Gaara who nodded.

“Sakura and I will be going out tonight Gaara, but you will see her again in the morning.” Sasori rose from his seat on the couch and walked to the door expecting Sakura to follow him.

He turned back annoyed when he realized she wasn’t beside him and looked to see Gaara holding onto her tightly.

“Can Gaara come too Sasori Kun?” Sakura asked him hopefully.

“No.” Sasori opened the door and motioned for her to join him.

Sakura tried to pull Gaara’s arms off of her but he wouldn’t budge.

“I want you to stay,” Gaara said stubbornly.

“I’m sorry Gaara Kun, I have to go with Sasori Kun.” Sakura pulled one arm from the boy, than the other and stumbled off the couch.

Gaara gripped her leg and pulled back on it making her fall.

“Enough of this.” Sasori plucked Gaara off of his student and threw him onto the couch.

“We will return in the morning boy, you can see her then.” Sasori turned back to the door and Sakura followed, waving at Gaara as she turned the corner to follow Sasori down the stairs and out of the manse.

Gaara ran to the window, tears falling down his face, his sand swirling around him. He opened the door to his Uncle’s balcony and turned to sand falling down to the street and ran after them, out the gates and into the desert following at a slower pace.

Sasori grit his teeth and turned to see the little boy following them. Gaara stopped when he saw his Uncle had stopped. Sakura looked up at Sasori, his face was red.

“Maybe just for tonight?” Sakura asked.

“His father won’t be pleased.” Sasori sighed, they had to go back, he didn’t want Rasa to think he had kidnapped the boy.

Rasa stood on top of the Kazekage manse and watched the three bodies walk back through the gate with a smirk. Sasori had underestimated his son’s bond with the girl. ‘What will you do now Sasori?’, Rasa wondered.

Sasori sat on the end of his bed in his bedroom while Sakura and Gaara got ready for bed in his bathroom.

It was clear he wouldn’t be able to get rid of the little brat so there was no point in telling him to leave only to have him sneak in the room later. Sasori let him stay, it was less of a headache for him, besides, one brat or two...did it matter? He had to use this to his advantage.

The children came out of the bathroom in their sleeping clothes and Sasori ushered them into the sitting room and onto the couch. He would need to get her a real bed if this was to continue and he was sure it would, looking down at the two little heads so close together sandworms wouldn’t even be able to pull them apart.

He sighed and was about to turn back to his own room when a little hand grabbed ahold of his,

“Thank you, Sasori Kun,” Sakura said with a smile and closed her eyes, her hand drew back up under the covers and he could see Gaara’s teal eyes watching him in the dim light.

“Goodnight girl,” Sasori said, pulling the doll from his pouch and setting it in her arms.

Leaving the children on the couch he walked to his bedroom, leaving his door open for the night.

Three months had passed since Sasori had taken Sakura on as his private student. Three months Sakura and Gaara had been sleeping every night together in Sasori’s sitting room, now their room as they called it, much to Sasori’s annoyance. 

A much larger walkway had been built into the wall between the bedroom and the sitting room, a large raised bed had been added, most of Gaara’s books and furniture were packed into the small corners of the room and two desks were set up by the sliding glass window for their studies.

After seeing that Sasori had accepted his son’s role in his student’s life Rasa had been much more lenient with his brother and had even signed his request to open the other side of the sitting room wall into the bedroom next door so that his sitting room could remain his sitting room and the children could use the bedroom.

Three weeks later the children moved into their own joint bedroom attached to Sasori’s sitting room, which was now his again aside from the lunch bar and desks. The children shared the bathroom that was attached to their room and everyone was much happier, particularly Gaara who never wanted to be alone again.

Rasa was pleased because it kept Sasori from running off who knew where like he did from time to time, and it kept his son happy. There hadn’t been any outbursts or rampages since he had become friends with the little pink haired hellion and she was proving more and more useful every day.

Her precise chakra control was admirable, her reserves seemed to grow by the week and she had a mind as sharp as a kunai. Rasa couldn’t have picked a better bodyguard and companion for his son if he had tried, and he had tried. They had all failed or Gaara had killed them.

Rasa hadn’t given up on his plan to train the girl in sand manipulation but for the sake of peace between his brother and him, he let it go for now. The girl would need much larger chakra reserves for him to train her properly anyhow. Not everyone had the chakra of a biju at hand.

For the moment everyone was happy, his son was learning manners from the girl, several maids had mentioned to him the young Lord was very sweet and thanked them repeatedly for the most mundane chores, they were delighted. His son was slowly gaining their trust and appreciation, something he thought would never be possible after his first two rampages through the village.

Gaara’s birthday had passed but Sakura’s birthday was coming up and Sasori knew she had been working hard and wanted to reward her. He had already finished making the puppet for her but still needed to dip the blades in a special poison. 

It wouldn’t kill the target, only weaken them. Sakura had caught onto puppetry very quickly but tended to walk a bit on the reckless side when it came to sparing and he didn’t want either her or his nephew to die from her overzealous attacks.

Sasori put in his request to travel to the Land of Hot Water for a special herb required to make his poison of choice. He requested both Gaara and Sakura be allowed to accompany him because where there was one, there was the other. They were annoyingly inseparable from each other, and him. He had barely had any time to himself since he had taken her on as a student but her wit and sharp mind accompanied with her ability to learn quickly more than made up for it in his mind.

He was, however, running behind on his own art project and had set some time aside after their trip to Hot Water to finish his other puppets in his private cave.

Permission had been granted for him to take both of the children with him, with one amendment, a team of Anbu would accompany them. Sasori had been angered at first but he understood. Gaara was the Kazekage’s son and the one tailed jinchuuriki.

Sasori and his students set out the next morning with their tag of Anbu following them at an annoyingly close range.

“Send your chakra out in wide ribbons like I showed you and disperse them.” Sasori instructed Sakura.

The trip to The Land of Hot Water would not be wasted. He would have her hone her sensory abilities on the way.

“Tell me, how far away are our annoying tagalongs?” He asked.

Sakura concentrated, adjusted her chakra and spoke hesitantly, “2 kilometers?” She guessed.

Sasori watched her face, she wasn’t sure, that wouldn’t do.

“Gaara, how far?” He asked the boy.

“1.8 kilometers.” Gaara said promptly and accurately.

“Sakura, close, is unacceptable. Draw your chakra back in and around you and send it out again, keep doing that until you are absolutely sure of their distance, I will ask you again in one hour.” He said harshly.

Sakura bit her lip, she hated disappointing Sasori Kun. Fortunately it didn’t happen often. She looked back at Gaara who was looking at Sasori pensively. He turned his head to her and smiled, she smiled back.

“You can do it Sakura.” He encouraged her.

“Of course she can do it.” Sasori scoffed.

“Stop limiting yourself with petty concerns and do what I told you to.” Sasori cut off their conversation before it could start.

Sakura nodded and did as she was told, sending her chakra out around her in ribbons then dispersing the chakra. She had been doing this for about thirty minutes when she realized nothing had changed, she kept getting the same results. She took a deep breath, just like the chakra strings she knew she had to come up with a different way, her way. 

She sent out her chakra in a small light cloud and let it seep into her surroundings as she passed. Sakura closed her eyes and could feel the pulse of the earth around them. She could feel Sasori’s footsteps, Gaara’s and her own. Then, ever so slightly, like a flutter of wings, she felt them, the Anbu team and their steps, three separate gaites walking in time, thump, thump, thump...she could hear their heart beats, their breathing.

“The Anbu team is 1.6 kilometers away Sasori Kun.” She said breathlessly.

“And there are three of them, one of them is, “ She paused, “ One of them is ill I think. His breathing is uneven.” She opened her eyes to find Sasori looking at her, one side of his mouth upturned in the barest of smirks.

“Good Girl.” Sasori was pleased.

He had never told them how many of them there were, had not told them one of them had recently recovered from a serious injury but had been released from the hospital for this mission at the request of the Kazekage. Clever girl.

“How did you know how many were following us girl?” He asked her.

“There are three seperate foot falls, Sasori Kun.” She replied.

“You can hear them?” He said incredulously, it was impossible at this distance.

“I can feel them through the earth.” She said.

Sasori stopped walking and looked at her. “Explain.” He demanded resuming his pace.

“The ribbons weren’t working Sasori Kun, I apologize, but like the puppet, with the scrolls, I modified your instructions and made my own. I released my chakra in a cloud and let it fall into our surroundings as we walked. I can hear the pulse of the earth and everything that touches it. Including the Anbu and their heartbeats, their breathing.” She explained to him.

Sasori listened to his student explain how she had found a more suitable means of using her chakra to sense other shinobi, one that suited her much better than the one he had suggested. Her explanation both impressed him and threatened him. ‘What if she surpasses me, 'he worried briefly.

“Very good Sakura.” He complimented her.

Sasori’s compliments were rare. Sakura broke into a brilliant smile and blushed prettily. Gaara watched her face tint an amazing color of pink to match her hair, he was fascinated.

After the sensory lesson they walked in relative silence. Sasori knew he would have to change his lesson plan with the young girl again, she simply did not learn things the same way as others, as he had. He learned by analyzing, watching, then doing. 

She had to put forth more effort to be sure, but she learned by trying, failing and quickly learning from those mistakes. She took what worked and cast aside what did not quickly forming an alternate route in her head and pressing forward until she succeeded. It wasn’t so much natural talent as he had originally thought but perseverance.

Even he had to admit, it was an admirable trait. It fit becomingly well with her other more prominent trait, stubbornness.

“We will continue to travel for another few hours, there are some caves to the west of us. We will stop there for the night and weather providing we will continue on to the village of Kaze without stopping.” He told them and they nodded.

“Sakura, take out your puppets and practice with them for the rest of the day. Have them walk alongside us and perform their third level katas, one for each hand and different katas.” He told her.

“Yes Sasori Kun.” She pulled her puppets from her pouch and threw them in front of her, flicking her chakra strings from her fingers and effortlessly attaching them to her puppets, she did as he instructed and set each puppet to perform a different kata.

Sasori watched their progress out of the corner of his eye, while he scanned the horizon ever vigilant.

Gaara had created two sand figures to resemble her puppets, walked alongside her and made the same movements with his sand.

“Show off.” Sakura said out of the side of her mouth and the redhead smirked at her.

Sakura giggled but stopped when Sasori gave her a gimlet eye. Gaara snorted and they shared a smile before Sasori could look at them again.

Sasori noticed she had even fewer chakra strings attached to each puppet than she had the week before and watched as one string lay over two different parts of the puppet stretching every now and then to accommodate her demand to move the limb. He realized she was using far less chakra to obtain the same results...something he himself had just perfected. His eyes narrowed a bit at the girl. He sighed and shook his head repressing the urge to laugh at himself. He was not jealous of his student, he told himself, he was proud and pleased she would be able to use the puppet he had made her to its fullest.

“How far away from the caves are we Sakura, can you tell?” Sasori asked her curious to know if her new sensory ability worked on inanimate objects as well as the living ones.

“Um.” She cast her chakra out and concentrated for a moment. “5 kilometers Sasori Kun.”

“Good.” He told her and she smiled. ‘Incredible’, he thought to himself.

“Sakura. Do not tell anyone about your new ability, this stays between you, Gaara and I. Do you understand?” He said seriously to the girl.

“I understand Sasori Kun.” She nodded as did Gaara.

“I mean it.” He emphasized.

“Yes Sasori Kun.” She said more seriously and Gaara nodded again.

Sasori would hide as much of her brilliance as he could for as long as he could, to protect her.

Their little group made it to the caves by nightfall, set up camp and went to bed without eating. Sasori didn’t want to risk a fire so far out of Suna and nearing the border of The Land of Hot water. Even though they were a little over three days journey from the border, nomadic clans roamed this territory of Wind and Sasori would rather not deal with the annoyance.

Besides, there were more than a few reasons he had wanted Sakura to come with him on this trip. One was for the herb he sought of course, another to show her how to locate and harvest medicinal herbs and how to prepare them on the spot but the other was endurance and survival training. 

In the coming months he had plans of taking her with him on his missions. He had stopped accepting missions to focus on her training but the time was coming when Rasa would demand he start accepting missions again. He wanted her to be ready. A little experience was better than none and while he was confident he could protect her and complete his missions successfully he did not want the hindrance.

Sasori thought one of the best ways to teach her might be on hand experience and was eager for her to accompany him on his missions.

He knew he was pushing the children hard, but he would accept nothing less than their best and so far, they had not disappointed them. They hadn’t complained once, they hadn’t cried or fallen behind. Sasori watched the two little figures under the blankets in the back of the cave. He was almost proud of them.

It was midmorning two days later when they crossed the border into The Land of Hot Water. The Anbu team that had been following them now traveled alongside them as they were in forgeign territory.

Traveling south along the border Sasori pointed out various herbs and fungi that were useful for making both medicine and poisons. Sakura was fascinated and soaked up all of the information he gave her like a sponge. Gaara listened intently but was clearly less interested in the plants and more interested in Sakura’s reactions to his explanations.

Spotting the herb he required they stopped and he showed Sakura how to cut only the leaves they needed so that the plant would continue to grow and could be harvested again if needed. He continued to tell her that this particular poison had to be made while the leaves were fresh, that if they were wilted or damaged the poison wouldn’t be as effective or may not work at all.

Sakura watched him carfuly storing this valuable information away in her brain for the future.

When the poison was made Sasori tucked the small vials into his pouch and they left The Land of Hot Water as quickly as they had entered it. Stopping briefly for a bit of food and rest they continued on to the caves they had stayed in their first night out and ate cold meat and rice.

After dinner Sasori pulled Sakura’s present from it’s scroll and presented it to her.

It was a little girl, not much older than Sakura herself. She had long black hair and dark green eyes. The puppet was dressed in a black kimono cut up the side to accommodate movement, and she carried a set of small metal fans at her waist.

“What is her name?” Sakura asked, fingering her hair that felt very real and her clothes that were made of fine silk.

“I didn’t ask.” Sasori said as he handed her a vial of the poison he had made earlier, taking one out for himself.

Sakura looked at him inquisitively but he didn’t say anything else. Sending two chakra strings out on his left hand he opened each of her fans and dabbed them with poison.

“The poison should be applied lightly so it dries quickly. You can always reapply it again after it dries for intensity but you must only do it layer by layer or it will gum up.” He told her and she nodded as she watched him dip each of the girls fingers into the vial at a time.

“There are needles in her finger tips, you use your chakra to expel them, I will show you when we get home to Suna, for now, just know that they are there.” He watched her face and she nodded.

Sakura watched as he applied poison to a cord that was wrapped around her middle under her kimono and the wire that was hidden in her obi. She marveled at how real her doll looked and wondered how Sasori could make her look so real.

After Sasori had finished applying the poison and the poison had dried, Sakura took her new puppet and stood her in front of her looking over her more closely in the fading light.

“She looks so real.” Sakura murmured, taking the girl’s hair in her fingers once more.

“She is real.” Sasori told her.

“I took her on my last mission a few months ago. It takes time to make a human puppet.” He said watching her.

Sakura looked at him, then back at her puppet. Her eyes went wide.

“You made a puppet out of a real girl?” She asked him her voice low.

“Does it scare you girl, to know she was once like you, alive, breathing, her heart beating like yours?” He asked her seriously, curiously waiting for her answer. A defining moment.

“Of course not Sasori Kun. I love her.” Sakura grabbed him by the ears and rubbed her face against his.

Sasori froze, like he had done the last time she had done this to him.

Sakura released him and turned back to her puppet.

“Will you show me how to make them too?” She asked him curiously.

“If you like.” Sasori’s heart thumped painfully in his chest, yes, she was his student, his apprentice...he would teach her everything.

“She is beautiful Sasori Kun, thank you for the gift.” She smiled at him, one of her front teeth was missing.

“Happy Birthday girl.” He said and turned away from her so she wouldn’t see his smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday Tsukiko......I haven't gone to bed yet so it is still the 15th in my head:P


	9. Chapter 9

One year later…

“We will leave in the morning, make sure you have packed accordingly.” Sasori told Sakura.

“You will be in charge of the puppets. Make sure they are clean and oiled. Reapply their poisons according to their chart and store extra in your pouch to reapply them after use.” He reminded her.

Sakura walked over to the puppet she had named Kayda, little dragon, the puppet Sasori had given to her as a birthday present last year and sealed her into her scroll. She had already cleaned and polished Kayda from their last mission on the borders of Wind. Her poison had dried and her hair had been redone, she was perfect. 

Sakura tied her scroll to her waist and began the slow careful process of oiling and poisoning Sasori’s other puppets preparing them for use. Her favorite was the Third Kazekage puppet. Sasori had let her help him complete the puppet. They had finished it only a few months ago and she couldn’t wait to see Sasori use him in battle.

The war had escalated considerably since she had been taken into the Kazekage’s family. Sasori had been called out to the front lines more and more. She and Gaara had begged him to let them come with him but he and the Kazekage had both refused.

Sakura knew though, it was only a matter of time. Sasori was good, the best, but he was only one man against many. He needed her. She could help him. She was only 6 years old but she was already far more skilled than Kankuro, who had already officially joined the Puppet Brigade of Suna.

Per Sasori’s desire, she had no title,no rank. He refused to let her test, refused to let her sparr out in the open with Gaara as of six months ago. She knew he was hiding her skill, her abilities. When she had asked him why, he had refused to answer her, simply saying, he would explain it to her later. She was dissatisfied.

Gaara speculated it was to keep her safe. Sakura wasn’t sure, but she trusted Sasori, so she would wait. Gaara had chosen to stay without a rank, claiming he, like Sakura, didn't need one. She had appreciate his efforts not to leave her behind, he was a good friend.

She had been learning about herbs and poisons since their trip to The Land of Hot Water last year and knew how to make several minor poisons and their antidotes already. She wanted more, she needed more. She craved knowledge.

Sasori never limited her in that area, only cautioned her. He fed into her desire for more, valued and shared it with her.

Sakura counted out the poisons as she wrapped them in their cloths and placed them in her pouch in order. Gaara would not be joining them on this mission and her thoughts wandered to her friend.

Rasa, his father, had started training Gaara in more advanced sand manipulation, something she had been offered to participate in but had declined at a small twitch of Sasori’s hand. She knew he did not want her to learn sand manipulation from the Kazekage. At first, she hadn't understood why, even now, she still wasn’t sure but she could guess. There seemed to be some underlying tension between the two brothers, that both her and Gaara had picked up on.

Gaara had used Sakura’s sensory technique as a basis for his own and could read people’s moods and emotions in the air with his sand, like she used the earth and the wind, together, they were quite a formidable force.

Sometimes if she was done with her lessons and her training she would go to the training grounds to watch Gaara train with his father. She would take a book or a scroll with her but she would watch and learn from their examples and practice later in their room when Gaara wasn’t there.

Sasori had caught her one time unawares and she realized as good of a sensor that she had become, he could still sneak up on her. She realized he had been there for some time watching her move the small stream of sand around the room, left then right, up and down, twirling it through the air with her hands outstretched, her chakra filling the room.

“You don’t infuse the sand with your chakra like Gaara?” He had asked her instead of scolding her.

She had taken hope from his reaction and had eagerly explained to him that no, the sand was not infused with her chakra but that the air was. She could control not only the sand but the air around it making it a much more effective jutsu than simple sand manipulation. He had nodded once then left the room, returning seconds later with a few small pieces of paper.

“This is chakra paper. Take a piece and hold it between your fingers, it will tell us what chakra affinities you have.” He instructed.

Sakura took one of the small squares into her hand and held it up with two fingers releasing a small amount of chakra into it. The paper crumbled and fell apart.

“Earth affinity.” Sasori had expected that.

“Again.” He handed her another piece of paper.

The paper became wet in her hand.

“Water affinity.” Sasori nodded, that too had been expected, he pursed his mouth slightly and handed her another piece of paper, hoping he was correct in his hypothesis.

The paper ripped down the middle and Sasori smiled. “Wind.” He knew it...

Sakura looked at Sasori expectantly, hoping he would explain to her what this meant. She had read about the different chakra affinities in her books and knew water affinity was rare for Suna residents. Sasori hadn’t explained anything to her, only looked at her deep in thought, turned and walked out of her and Gaara’s room and didn’t return.

The next day she woke to find her desk in his sitting room piled high with water release scrolls and books, with a note telling her to read and train from the scrolls, that he was in his cave working on his next project but would be home in time for dinner. Her and Gaara had spent the entire day reading only to make a minor attempt at some basic water jutsu before his return.

“I can not teach you water release, it is not one of my affinities, but it will be very useful to you. Suna nin are particularly vulnerable to water attacks, it is not common in our environment so we do not have the experience we should when battling a water type. It will serve you well to include it in your arsenal.” He had told her.

“I won’t be fighting Suna nin though Sasori Kun, it will not be as effective against non Suna shinobi.” She had countered.

“You must prepare for everything, even against an attack from your own.” He had told her in a stern voice and she had nodded studiously letting her argument fall to the floor.

Sakura pulled her head from her thoughts as Gaara entered their room. He would be leaving in the morning as well but with his father. Rasa had started taking him out into the deeper parts of the desert to train him in more dangerous techniques not suitable to practice so close to the village.

“I don’t like being away from you.” Gaara said for the fifth time that day already and flopped down on the bed, his head turned to watch her pack her bag.

Sakura smiled, “It is only for a few days Gaara Kun. We both have to get stronger, for Suna, for each other.” 

“I’ll miss you too though.” She bent over him and kissed him on his kanji and he giggled.

“I can’t sleep without you now.” He mumbled into his arm that covered his mouth.

“That’s why your father doesn’t take you out for more than a few days and you couldn’t sleep before me anyway.” She reminded him.

“Or let Sasori take you for more than a few days.” Gaara moved his arm from his face and smiled at her, ignoring her comment about how he couldn’t sleep before she had come into his life.

Sakura checked her bag twice and then her pouch setting a few things out on their shared dresser to add to her pouch in the morning. Satisfied she turned and hopped onto their bed with Gaara and laid out like a starfish looking up at their ceiling.

Gaara crawled over to her and stuck his face in her line of vision. “I can’t wait until we can go on missions alone, just the two of us. It will be fun.”

Sakura laughed, she would like that. “That’s why we both have to train hard, so we can do that when we get older.”

“Come on, let’s go train together okay.” She pulled Gaara up by the arms, he pretended he was dead and lay limp in her grasp.

She grunted and tried to lift him up but he giggled and held onto the covers of their bed. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him then smiled. She had been practicing her chakra infusion on her own for the last few months. The night she killed Yashamaru had haunted her for a time, she no longer had dreams about killing him but she remembered. She remembered how hard she had hit him.

Sakura hadn’t realized it at the time but she had hit him using a chakra infused fist, it had given her unbelievable strength. Slowly she began to practice pushing and pulling the chakra in her body and focusing it like her chakra strings into her different limbs to enhance her strength.

She took a deep breath, pushed her chakra to her hands and arms and lifted Gaara up off of the bed and set him on the floor, blankets and all. He blinked at her.

“How did you do that!” He looked at her in surprise.

“I used my chakra to enhance my strength.” She said proudly grinning at him.

“Amazing.” He gazed at her, his face soft, full of admiration. He adored her.

“Let’s go.” Sakura grabbed him by the hand and they ran out of their room for the training fields.

The floating eye of the Kazekage disappeared from their room and returned to Rasa in his office across from the manse.

“Interesting.” He hummed to himself pondering over this new development.

Sakura said goodbye to Gaara before her and Sasori left Suna the next morning. They traveled the whole day without pause to make camp in a heavily wooded area two days outside of Konoha where the forest met the desert.

Sakura watched as Sasori made several complicated hand signs and the seemingly solid wall of granite beside the small mountain opened up to reveal a large cave.

“We will be staying here for the night and moving to another one of my safe houses in the morning.” Sasori told her as they walked into the open cavern.

The granite closed in behind them seemingly part of the mountain again and they were cast into darkness. Sakura could feel Sasori moving beside her, light flickered around them, sconces along the wall began to light as Sasori’s chakra flowed around the room. Sakura blinked and watched the lights travel down a long corridor to what appeared to be another room separate from the one they were currently standing in.

“You expressed interest in learning how to make my puppets and helped me complete my Third Kazekage puppet. Do you wish to assist me with my next one girl?” He asked her as they walked down the corridor to the next room.

“Yes Sasori Kun! Please!” Sakura skipped alongside him dancing with each step in anticipation.

Sasori smiled down at his apprentice indulgently, here in the privacy of his safe house such actions were acceptable he thought. No one would see but her.

“As you wish then, we will be making a compartmental puppet, one where the puppeteer can hide themselves from their enemy. Not knowing the true identity of your enemy or their skills is a great disadvantage, we must use our unique skills to utilize such hindrances to our advantage.” He explained to her as they entered the back room.

Lights sprung up along the walls like they had when they had first entered the cave and Sakura saw all sorts of different kinds of puppets lining the walls.

“Wow Sasori Kun, there are so many. I thought...the Lord Third was your first human puppet?” She asked him.

“He was my first perfect puppet, but he was not my first attempt.” He corrected her.

Sakura knew her teacher kept secrets, she knew many of the secrets he kept from others but this was the first time she realized, as she looked around the room, how much he had really kept from her and wondered...what else hadn’t he told her.

“We have been given 3 days to complete the mission. It will only take us two, perhaps one, the remaining time we have will be spent here, preparing my next puppet. I will show you how to bleed the corpse and preserve the casing, heart and chakra channels.” He told her, his eyes following her movement around the room as she looked at his things.

Sakura nodded. “I can’t wait, Sasori Kun. Thank you.”

Sasori nodded his approval at her enthusiasm. He was pleased that Rasa had started training Gaara personally, leaving him this free time with Sakura. He would not have been able to bring her here, to teach her these things, if the boy had been with them. Gaara was his nephew, while Sakura was his in a way that his nephew could never be, she was his apprentice and so much more. 

He wanted to share things with her he knew she would appreciate and understand, things he knew Gaara simply did not have the heart or the capacity to value, the sand tankuki in him or not...Gaara didn’t have that darkness, that desire to change the living to preserve it like he and Sakura did.

Gaara had blood lust to be sure, he had hate, and angst, he loved the blood and the killing, but the art...he lacked the finesse that Sakura possessed, that he had always had even when his grandmother had taught him his first movements and forms. Yes, Sakura was his in a way she could be no one else’s and he wasn’t going to share that part of her with anyone, not even Gaara.

“Sasori Kun, how many safe houses do you have?” Sakura was at his side again pulling on his sleeve looking up at him.

“As many as I need.” He answered her cryptically.

She understood, he didn’t want to give her an exact number for whatever reason, so she just hummed her understanding and let it go.

“Come.” He walked out of the room back to the main room and started to unpack a few items from the shelves on the walls.

“Here is your bedding for the night, start a fire and use your water jutsu to fill that pot.” He pointed to a pot by the wall.

“Start dinner with the things in this scroll here.” He tossed her a scroll.

“I will be back shortly, there is something I need to check on.” He told her and left, unsealing the cave entrance and disappearing into the dimming light.

Sakura sighed, he tended to do this to her on missions. He would show her to their camp, have her set everything up, make whatever meal there was to be made and disappear, only to return in time to eat and sleep.

He never told her what he did, never answered any of her questions when she asked him, but sometimes he would bring her back presents. Sometimes he would come back hurt and need her to clean and bandage his wounds. She liked taking care of him. He never thanked her, rarely praised her, but she knew he appreciated it, she could feel it in the ground, the hum of his chakra, the gentle touch of his hand when he patted her on the head.

It had taken her a long time to feel like the Kazekage manse was her home. It had taken the servants a long time to accept she belonged there. Rumors had sprung up around her, as Sasori knew they would, had warned her about, but knowing why didn’t help her cope with them when they were whispered behind her back or sneered at her with open eyes from the faces of the less wary citizens.

Gaara had been elemental in calming and quieting the bolder voices, his mere presence beside her kept most from sneering much less speaking out at her.

“It’s jealousy.” Sasori had told her after one incident in the market.

A woman had ‘accidentally’ spilled her hot soup on Sakura in the market. Gaara had pinned the woman to a nearby building with his sand slowly, maliciously squeezing the life out of her until his father came and released her.

Sakura had been taken to the hospital, her burns treated and then brought to the Kazekage’s office where the woman, Gaara, and Sasori had been waiting for her.

Rasa had read the treasonous proclamation to the woman, for her attack on Sakura had been an attack on the royal family, and asked Sakura, how she had wanted the woman punished. The woman’s eyes had gone wide and her lips had started to quiver.

“You’re a disgrace, you’re pathetic, and you’re not worth my time.” Sakura had said, her voice calm, controlled. Only Gaara had felt her rage, standing so closely beside her, his hand on her arm.

Sasori had watched his student with avid interest in her words, a twitch to his mouth.

Rasa had nodded, “I understand.” His eyes drifted to his son who had nodded.

Rasa sent his golden sand out toward the woman, and had suffocated her with it. “Take her body, show the citizen’s what happens to those who ‘accidentally’, harm a member of the royal family.” He had told his Anbu guard.

Sakura watched the pot as she stirred, her thoughts flickering from one memorable moment to another. That was the moment she knew, she belonged with Gaara, with Sasori, that she had a real home. The mouth of the cave opened again and Sasori stepped inside.

Sakura rose from her crouching position and smiled at him. “Okaeri Sasori Kun.” She greeted him.

Sasori paused and looked at the little girl standing and bowing beside the fire and cooking pot. His lips twitched once then formed the softest smile she had seen him give her yet.

“Okaeri, Sakura Chan.” Sasori bent his head to her, something he had never done before, to her welcome home, the first of what he hoped were many more to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah...development a beautiful and ungrateful thing, malicious by design, what will Sasori do when he realizes Rasa knows more than he lets on, that his compliance is but a fleeting thought in his long term diabolical plan...


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I deleted then reposted with a very minor change, if you have already read it, you don't need to read it again

There was a small steady stream of water falling down the left side of the next cave they stopped at, the cave they would use until night when they would be able to complete their mission and return to the cave of the previous night for her human puppet lesson.

She pressed her hand to the side of the wall and let the cool water run over her fingers and drip down her arm to fall from her elbow.

“Are all of your safe houses caves Sasori Kun?” She asked him.

“Mostly, though some are small buildings that have underground tunnels.” He told her.

“They must be enclosed.” She mumbled to herself.

Sasori tapped his fingers on his knees as he thought, sitting down on a makeshift bed on the opposite side from the falling water as he watched her move about the cave. She had almost full mastery of her little dragon,she only lacked battle experience. She would be the one then, to kill their targets he decided. He would take care of any guards or hired blades, he nodded to himself, yes, it was time for her to make her first professional kill.

That night they moved under the cover of the dark, each step soft and soundless on the ground. 

He had told her before they had left the cave to move her chakra cloud around her, to infuse it into the air and to alert him of any enemy nin in their vicinity. She was a good sensory now but being a good sensory in the relative safety of your village is much different than sensing enemy nin in the field.

They had almost made it to the small compound that hid their targets from them, when she stilled him with a touch. He had known they were there, had already prepared his attack but her small paw on his arm stopped him from his first and killing blow.

“May I Sasori Kun?” She asked in a very small, shallow breath.

‘Interesting’, she wanted to kill him?

Sasori nodded, “Make it silent.”, he had his fingers and strings ready in case she failed, hidden beneath the sleeves of his cloak.

She pulled her Little Dragon, Kayda, from her scroll and attached her strings. She sent the little puppet out along the ground to walk silently toward her prey. Sasori watched as she boldly walked the puppet up to the stationed lookout and had the puppet tugg on the man’s sleeve to get his attention. The nin looked down at the little girl puppet, his eyes went wide. Sakura sent one poisoned senbon to his throat, shot out of the finger of Kayda, the direction clear, the shot easy with the man’s attention on the puppet girl, he had turned to her positioning himself for the doll’s attack.

‘Clever girl’, he smiled to himself, “Good.” He told Sakura and motioned her to move forward with him to the compound gates.

Sasori opened the mouth of his cave and ushered Sakura inside. She had done well, he was very proud of her, her first duo target killed flawlessly.

He had dropped her down into the room when the alarm had gone off in the compound. Standing in the corner of the room she had watched as her targets sat up abruptly in bed to the alarm and started to dress.

Like a shadow she moved along the wall, Kayda close to her, then with two flicks of her fingers, they had fallen to the floor, their noiseless gasps forever imprinted in her brain. ‘It’s too easy’, she had thought, one moment they are there breathing, talking, alive and the next...they are not.

She had used her chakra to walk up the wall and out the window to join Sasori on the roof as the door to the room had opened and the bodies had been discovered. Her limbs moved on auto pilot as she followed him back to their cave, she had sat numbly as he wrote their mission report, she stared at the opposite wall replaying the scene in her head over and over, the details she hadn’t realized her mind had captured, like a picture book.

The woman had been beautiful, the man handsome and Sakura thought, ‘What a waste’. She didn’t know why she had killed them, they were targets, nothing more, nothing less. Vaguely she realized she was in some form of shock. Sakura had read about it in one of the books Sasori had given her to read, yes, shock. She didn’t feel shocked, she thought to herself as she ran her hands up and down her arms.

Sakura lifted her head to look at Sasori across the room. His amber eyes were on her, intense, proud and...something else, she didn’t know how to name it, but if she tried, perhaps it was...ambition.

Sasori crossed the room and took the girl in his arms. “You will sleep with me tonight. If you get sick and need to vomit do not be ashamed, I will place a pot next to the bed for you. You did well.”

She had nodded, ‘she did well’, she laid her head against his chest and fell asleep listening to the sound of his heart beat.

Sasori carried her to their bed and laid down, laying the small sleeping girl down beside him, he hoped by doing this, she would be spared the nightmares that had plagued him from his first professional kill. He recalled how alone he had felt, how empty it had made him, how he wished that his mother had been there to hold him. If he could, he would spare her those feelings, she was his apprentice, it was his duty to her, nothing more he told himself as she unconsciously curled her little body up against his, her breath warm on his neck as she buried her face in his skin.

‘Nothing more’, he repeated, he was not her father, he was her teacher. She was not his daughter, he was too young for that but he could...protect her. She was his in a way no one else would ever be, and he knew he was hers in a way he had never been to anyone else or ever would be.

He would never tell her in her waking hours but he bent his head and kissed her hair, “I’m so proud of you girl, so proud, you did so well, you’re so brave. You will be unstoppable one day, and I will be there by your side, I promise, I won’t leave you. I will be there for you.”

Sasori’s body tensed as she lifted her head, “Thank you Sasori Sama.” her little voice rang in his ears.

“You don’t have to call me Sama, I find I much prefer Kun now.” He kissed her head again and they fell asleep, the tension left his body and he relaxed for the first time since his mother and father had left him in the care of his grandmother so many years ago.

Sakura woke alone, but she could hear Sasori moving around in the back of the cave, could feel his presence when she sent her chakra into the earth. She closed her eyes and lay in the remnants of their bed and the closeness they had shared feeling his energy pulse and move closeby. It was then she realized, he couldn’t feel her chakra when it was in the earth, he couldn’t sense her chakra when she imbued it to the ground and she wondered, if Gaara would be able to with his sand. She would have to find out.

She sat up and saw breakfast set beside the fire that heated their cave, he had been up for some time she realized and wondered how long she had been sleeping. She crawled over to the food and started to eat as he pulled a small chest over to her and tapped the lid lightly with one finger.

“This is for you.” He told her and walked away, back to where he had been working in the cave.

Sakura took another bite of rice and fish looking at the chest. She chewed and swallowed, then lifted the lid and peered inside.

“It’s a portable lab.” Sasori’s voice said beside her and she turned to look at him, he had come back without her knowing.

“You deserve it.” He rose to his full height and looked down at her, “For last night.”

He turned to walk away again but she grabbed the hem of his pants leg and pulled slightly.

He looked down at her and his mouth twitched in an awkward fashion, “I do not wish to discuss it.”

Sakura watched him walk away from her, her head turning back to the chest beside her, her eyes roamed the vials and bottles, the needles and lamps, the small perfectly organized herbs and containers within.

“We don’t need to discuss it, I understand perfectly. I just wanted to make sure it had really happened and that it wasn’t a dream.” She said out loud but quietly, to herself as she began to rummage through the contents of the chest.

Sasori had heard her though, his hands had stopped at her voice and his eyes had closed momentarily as he listened to her words. ‘No, it wasn’t a dream, but a dream come true.’, like Gaara, he realized, he wasn’t alone anymore, and hadn’t been for quite some time now.

Gaara was waiting impatiently for them by the gate. Sakura saw him shifting back and forth from one foot to the other as he watched their approach. She skipped and waved at him from the top of the last dune and smiled when he waved back.

“We will deliver our report to the Kazekage and then you may have the rest of the afternoon off. Your training will continue tomorrow morning.” Sasori told her casually as they stepped over the seal of the village and onto Suna sand.

“Sakura Chan!” Gaara hugged her and walked with them to deliver their report.

An hour later they were in their room telling each other everything the other had missed while they had been apart.

“It was, different.” Sakura said when Gaara had asked her how she felt after killing her targets.

“Different?” He repeated, he thought he understood but all of the people he had killed so far had been a result of him losing his temper or when Shukaku had taken control of him when he slept. He had never killed anyone because he was told to, or for his village.

“Yes, I don’t know how to describe it , they were alive and breathing one moment and then, they weren’t.” She said simply and looked up at him.

“It made my breath come quick, but I wasn’t frightened, it made my heart pound painful in my chest but, it wasn’t...unpleasant, it was...exciting, my puppet, Kayda, she was the last thing they saw before they died it was, like nothing I have ever felt before.” She told him, the confusion clear on her face.

“You’ve killed before though, my Uncle Yashamaru, you killed him.” Gaara pointed out.

“It wasn’t the same, I did that because I was scared because he was mean and I wanted to hurt him, to make him stop, this was, ..they hadn’t done anything to me, they didn’t know me and I didn’t know them it was...impersonal.” She said.

“That is what killing is.” Sasori spoke from their bedroom door.

“It is impersonal, we are shinobi, we kill, there is no use dwelling on it girl, it will only slow your senses and dull your nerves.” He laid three large books on their bed and walked back out of the room.

“I think he’s wrong.” Gaara said as he watched his Uncle leave their room.

‘I think killing is very personal.” he looked out their window over the desert and across the dunes.

Sakura considered Gaara’s words and thought that perhaps they were both right in their own way. She reached over to the books Sasori had laid on their bed and opened the first one curiously. ‘Intermediate poisons’, she read. Excellent. Reaching for the second book she looked at the cover, ‘Human Anatomy and Chakra Systems’. Interesting and the last book she read, ‘Herbology from Around the World’. She smiled.

“You’re going to be reading for the rest of the day now aren’t you?” Gaara looked annoyed.

“No, but maybe before bed.’ She smiled at him.

Sakura knew Gaara hated it when they were apart. She knew he hated how much Sasori monopolized her time, but it couldn’t be helped, she had to train, she had to learn, and he was her teacher. 

He had asked her several times to join him in his sand manipulation lessons but she had continued to refuse, because of Sasori but after their last mission she wondered if she was doing herself a disservice. Shouldn’t she know all she could? She didn’t want to limit herself. The things she learned while watching Gaara train with his father were beneficial but it wasn’t enough. Eavesdropping was not the same as a real lesson. Maybe she would speak to Sasori about it later.

“Let’s go outside.” Gaara took her by the hand and pulled her off of their bed and out the door of their room.

Rasa watched his son and the girl run across the narrow road in front of the manse from his office window, down the street and into the small rarely used park to play on the swings. The boy had done well on their trip into the desert. Gaara’s sand manipulation was almost as good as his, soon it would be time to send him on missions. Perhaps he would send both children with Sasori on his next mission to get them a bit more experience. He would need his brother on the front lines again soon and he wanted the children trained a bit more before he left, in case he didn’t come back.

The trio left Suna three days later much to Sasori’s annoyance. He didn’t want Gaara on his missions with Sakura and hoped Rasa wasn’t going to make a habit of it. 

He had read the mission scroll in front of Rasa before accepting it. “The whole village. You want me to take the children with me to eliminate a village.” Sasori quirked an eyebrow at his brother.

“It should be easy, between the girl and Gaara, you might not have to lift a finger.” Rasa smiled charmingly at his brother.

“I have no doubt.” Sasori looked at his brother, he took in the shallow breath, the tick in his temple, he was up to something.

“Very well. I will let the children handle this mission. ” Sasori turned to leave the office, he had no doubt in his mind Gaara and Sakura could handle this mission without him, that wasn’t the issue. The issue was why, why was Rasa pushing for this?

He would not have chosen to allow them to participate in such a mission yet but he could see the merit. The sooner they hardened their hearts, the better. He did not worry about Sakura, she would be fine, but the boy was softer, he only hoped Shukaku’s blood lust would carry the boy through the mission.

“This will not be like before Sakura. I will not be there to help you. Gaara. Show no mercy. This is not a rampage, this is a mission. Leave no one alive.” Sasori stood with the two six year olds at the top of the cliff looking down at the small village. 

Gaara looked at Sakura who pulled Kayda from her scroll and attached her chakra strings to her doll, and nodded. They leapt from the top of the cliff and raced down the side toward the village. 

Thier dust could be seen from the village towers and the alarm had been sounded. Gaara shifted his gourd on his back and brought his sand up around him as Sakura released the blades from Kayda’s arms and sent her to meet their first victim.

Sakura jumped over the first team leaving Gaara to take care of them as he wished, she raced over the rooftops to the village elder’s house dropping silently through the window in the main parlor piercing him through the heart with two chakra strings while her other hand made Kayda dance her dance of death with her fans dominating the room with wind manipulation. The advancing nin couldn’t even touch her.

Rising from her one kneed crouch as the last body hit the floor she smiled, that had taken less effort than she had anticipated. Her head snapped up from the closest body to the rushing sound of Gaara’s sand and screams. She smiled again, Gaara was having fun.

Gaara crushed the legs of the man who had jumped out of the shadows at him and tossed the second wave of nin back with a small wall of sand, breaking the wall apart to close in on each victim, “Sand coffin.” Gaara’s outreached hands closed into tight fists and blood exploded from the floating mounds.

Sakura dropped down beside him, “The elder is dead, let’s wrap this up.”

Gaara nodded, his eyes wild and tinged with yellow. He sent his sand out into the village checking every home, every shop and street. His smile turned maniacal as he heard the screams of Sakura’s kills surround him. She was fast, efficient...she was his best friend.

They stood side by side, back to back, turning slowly, moving to face anyone that may be left. She moved in a circle timed with his and sent her chakra out into the ground and closed her eyes. “Two”, she whispered, “The East wall, they are trying to flee, Sasori said leave none alive.”

They moved as one to the wall, Gaara sent his sand out along the ground locking thier feet in place.

“Please.” The woman begged, her hand clasped that of her small child not much older than Gaara and Sakura.

“Please, have mercy.” She begged again, tears streaming down her face.

“No.” Gaara said, “There is no mercy here.” a low growl vibrated his lips as his eyes flashed yellow and black.

Sakura watched with passive interest as his hand rose, sand circling the air forming into spikes. Gaara whipped his hand through the air and the sand spikes flew through the air impacting the fragile bodies of the mother and child, pinning their bodies to the wall like rats on a board.

“Well done.” Sasori’s voice came to them on the wind.

Sakura looked up to the wall and saw him standing there, his arms at his side, his eyes locked onto her and Gaara. He turned and jumped from the wall heading west toward Suna and they followed.

Sasori had watched the children's bloody progress as they had cut their way through the village. He had nodded his approval when Sakura had gone straight to the elder’s home to eliminate the highest ranking village head. He had been pleased to see how well they worked together in action, their skills complemented one another, their minds in sync with one another. He had thought it before and, this was further proof if he had needed any, they were going to be unstoppable.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> small underage kiss, nothing creepy just thought I should put it in there to save myself any unnecessary comments about how they are too young and ewww and blar blar blar...

Sakura held Gaara’s hand the following night as they lay in their bed. They had both killed before but there was something more...something different about what they had done in that village...to the village, and the thoughts that couldn’t be formed into words, plagued them both.

Sasori hadn’t said anything about their odd behavior, he seemed to understand without words what they were feeling and Sakura wondered if it was like that for all shinobi after their first real mission, their first village wipe. She could feel the tension in Gaara’s arms as he moved to wrap them around her and hug her tight up against himself. He tended to do that when he was upset or when it was close to a full moon.

Tonight it was both. Tomorrow was a full moon and they had yet to discuss what had happened in the village. While they were there, when they had been completing the mission, it had seemed natural, fun and exciting. It had been easy, the nin the civilians had hired to protect their village couldn’t have been any higher than Genin Sakura was sure, a mistake, one that had cost them all of their lives.

Her thoughts strayed to the next question in her mind and she was sure it was also on Gaara’s as they lay there grasping for support from one another...what level were they really? They were beyond that of Genin she was sure. 

She had seen the teams training on the grounds, had scoffed at the lack of talent and skill in the new Suna Genin that had just graduated last week. She had mentioned her disappointment to Sasori and he had merely shrugged, telling her that if she expected less, she would be less disappointed.

She was less than pleased with his answer. Shouldn’t he or someone do something about that? Wasn’t one weak link the cause and opening for more to follow? Did the Kazekage not care that their new Genin were weak and worthless? She knew she was young, she knew there were many things she still didn’t understand about her world, their world but this seemed like obstinance to her...and she was determined to fix it, she just didn’t know how.

“Sakura?” Gaara called out her name, she could hear the desperation in his voice.

“Yes Gaara?” She asked running her little paw up and down his back in a repetitive and soothing manner.

“I’m worried.” He said quietly.

“About what Gaara Kun?” She asked.

“Shukaku, he…” Gaara’s whole body trembled and she hugged him tighter, forcing his body to still.

“He wants more, he craves more and...I’m worried Sakura, I’m worried that next time, it won’t be enough to calm him.” He breathed out a quick harsh breath against her cheek, stifling and suppressing the need, the want to sob and fall apart.

“Sakura, there wasn’t anyone left...there wasn’t anyone else to kill. Except you and…” He shuddered again.

“I don’t want to hurt you Sakura, what if...what if next time, I can’t control him?” The tears he had been trying too hard to hold back poured from his eyes and onto their shared pillow.

“I trust you. I know you wouldn’t let him hurt me. I know it, Gaara.” She said confidently.

“I know it.” She repeated her words to him.

She felt his head bob out a nod and he took a deep breath.

“Maybe...maybe if we do more of those kinds of missions, maybe if we kill enough, it will help control his urges, these needs he impresses upon you.” She suggested.

Gaara nodded again against her skin.

“Don’t leave me. Don’t ever leave me Sakura. I don’t know what...who I would be without you.” He whispered against her neck.

“I’m not going to leave you Gaara.” She told him.

“Promise me, Promise me!” He demanded gripping her hands tight.

“I promise Gaara. We will be together forever.” She moved so she could look into his eyes.

“I promise.” She kissed his kanji on his forehead, love, his kanji was the kanji for love and she had never thought it more fitting than at that moment.

Sasori released his third eye jutsu and rubbed his chin. He wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. They were growing far too close for his liking, but it would be foolish to seperate them, they worked far too well together. They could give one another the support they both needed, they could understand and be there for one another like no one else could. He knew like few others what it meant to be on top, to be the best...to be alone. He was pleased to know that Sakura wouldn’t be alone...if something were to happen to him..

Sasori looked out the window of his bedroom. Tomorrow was going to be the full moon. Gaara hadn’t had a rampage since Sakura had come into his life but Sasori wondered how long, for surely it was only a matter of time, before Shukaku wanted more, more than Gaara was willing to give him, and how long before the tanuki would want more than just blood.

“The war continues Sasori. I need you on the front lines, Suna needs you. You’re Sasori of the Red Sand for a reason brother. Too many have died, I can’t keep you in the village any longer. Gaara has learned all he can from me and Sakura has progressed further than either of us had ever hoped for, faster than even you.” Rasa threw that last bit in to irk his brother into a reaction of any kind.

“They have only been on four missions with me since the first one five months ago, they are not ready to be on their own Kazekage.” Sasori used his brother’s title intentionally.

“They are and they will be. You leave for the front lines immediately. That is an order from your Kazekage.” Rasa met Sasori’s eyes, daring him to object further, challenging him to disobey his orders.

Sasori stood still for the length of several heartbeats staring his brother in the eye.

“I will win this war for you Rasa. I will return alive. Do not think I am unaware of your plans for my student. Do not think I’ve not heard the talk. I told you a year ago, she is MY student, not yours, not your son's possession but mine. Remember that while I am gone. I will be back…”

Sasori left the Kazekage’s office without a backward glance. He needed to find Sakura, there were things she must be told...just in case he didn’t make it back to her.

He found her with Gaara in their room. Gaara was packing a day bag and Sakura was tapping her finger against three vials of what he recognized to be poisons of her own design.

She had been making good use of the little lab chest he had given her after her first professional kill, and like everything else she attempted, had excelled in it, mastered it and made it her own.

“Sasori Kun, which one do you think is best for Gaara, the hallucinogen, the paralytic or the blinding poison?” She didn’t look up at him when he had entered the room, but it wasn’t disrespect, it was never that from her, but concentration. She was so concentrated on the task before her she didn’t waste time nor energy to do something so simple as to ‘look’, when she saw without seeing, using her sensory skills.

“Hallucinogen, it is more entertaining.” He said coming to look over her shoulder at the other little items that were spread out on their bed.

“What are these for?” He asked, picking up a vial of what appeared to be Gaara’s chakra infused sand.

“It’s a vial of Gaara’s chakra infused sand.” Sakura replied, picking up the hallucinogen poison and uncorking it.

Sasori gave her an annoyed but slightly amused look. His skill hadn’t been the only thing he had passed onto her it seemed...her attitude was a mixture of both himself and Gaara with a touch that was all her own.

“I can see that.” He said dryly and Gaara giggled. ‘When will that boy stop giggling like a girl’, Sasori rolled his eyes internally before adressing his student once again.

“Why do you have it?” He asked her.

“I’m poisoning it.” She took the vial of sand from his fingers and upended the vial of poison into it.

All three watched as the sand turned into a swirling mass of light blue, the color of the poison, then settled back into the regular light brown they were used to.

“Undetectable by sight?” Sasori said with mild approval.

“And smell, and touch...but not taste. If they taste it, it won’t matter if they figure out it is a poison...obviously.” She laughed.

Sasori blinked. Gaara smirked at his Uncle’s reaction.

“You did this so if they are to somehow survive his attack, they won’t be able to survive your poison…” Sasori was very impressed...very.

Very few people were able to survive Gaara’s sand attacks. In fact, only one had survived his sand attack to date, his father. Now, however, not even his father would be able to survive his son’s sand attacks...he hadn’t come away from their last argument without damage, and more than a few cuts.

Sasori looked from his pink haired prodigy to his red headed Nephew. Could he win, if he took them both on, could he survive a battle to the death against the two of them? He wondered. It made his heart beat fast, and his pulse race at the very thought of the challenge.

“Sasori Kun?” Sakura called him back from his thoughts.

“Hum?” He looked at her.

“Be careful on the front lines. Come back safe.” Her green eyes held his with a knowing look beyond her years.

He didn’t bother replying with something so mundane as ‘How did you know’, or ‘Have you been spying on me?’, no...he wouldn’t be that boring and predictable. Instead he smirked at her, nodded his head and left the room. Everything he had to say to her could wait...until he returned to Suna, until he returned to her safe and sound.

Sasori left the village an hour later, traveling East across the desert, then North by evening. Sakura tracked his movements until he was out of Wind country, her sensory skills were almost unparalleled, it had been said to her by Sasori that only the fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato had been a better sensor than her. That she was on par with perhaps even that of the Third Kazekage or the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama with her sensory skills...and she was only seven years old.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can Sakura Chan. Please be careful while Sasori and I are gone. I don’t want to leave you but...it is a mission, one my father wants me to do on my own. He says it is the last lesson, after this I will be fully trained.” Gaara held Sakura’s hands at the front gate.

Rasa stood beside his son and his friend watching silently.

“I mean it Sakura. I will be back very very soon.” Gaara hugged her, then did something he had never done before, he kissed her on the mouth and ran through the gate into the desert.

Her eyes flew open wide at Gaara’s kiss, her hand clenched under her robes to hide the emotion, Rasa was standing beside her.

Sakura stood beside Rasa and watched until Gaara disappeared in the distance. She could still feel him moving away from her and felt as though her heart had left her as well, the little bit of it that had remained with her after Sasori had left...was now gone and moving farther and farther away with each pounding step of Gaara’s feet as he ran through the desert to the North of Wind.

Rasa looked down at the little girl beside him. This was the first time since she had moved into the manse, since his family had adopted her that he had been alone with her. His son and his brother protected her and watched her relentlessly. The timing couldn’t have been better if he had planned it himself…

“Would you like to have dinner with me tonight Sakura? Temari and Kankuro will be there as well.” Rasa asked the girl as they walked back to the manse together.

He had fully expected her to walk a different way home to avoid him, had expected her to look at him with the same expression of disdain that Sasori did and tell him ‘no’...but she didn’t.

Sakura turned her pink head to him quickly, “It would be a pleasure Kazekage. Please send Temari to get me when it is time. I apologize, I am not familiar with your schedule.” 

Rasa cocked his head to the side considering her words, she was much more sociable than both his son and his brother, and her manners were exquisite.

“I will do that.” He said opening the door to the manse for her and letting her walk in ahead of him.

“You may call me Rasa Sama, if you like Sakura.” He told her before she could run up the stairs to her and Gaara’s room.

The little girl looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before smirking, “No. I don’t think I will.”

Rasa almost laughed out loud…”You little shit.” He muttered as her pink head bobbed up the stairs and disappeared around the corner. She took after his brother more than he had thought after all.

Sakura had expected Rasa to try to talk to her, to attempt to influence her. Sasori Kun had told her many times to watch out for Rasa when he wasn’t around, when he was gone from the village. This had been the first time Rasa had spoken to her directly since the family had adopted her though.

She had spoken with Temari, had had icecream with her and played with her a few times in her room but had slightly more limited experiences with Kankuro who didn’t seem too intrested in her from the very begining.

Kankuro was an odd one as far as Sakura was concerned and had dismissed him from her mind after watching him train...unsuccessfully a few times at the training grounds when he didn’t think anyone was watching.

Sakura had asked Sasori why Kankuro was allowed to be part of the Suna Puppet Brigade, while she, Sakura was not.

Sasori had simply told her she was far too talented to waste her time on such novice entertainment. That the Puppet Brigade was for front line fodder, which she was not. She had protested that Kankuro was the Kazekage’s son, that that very reason eliminated him from being categorized as fodder. Sasori had snorted, amused by her antics and had dismissed her reasoning saying fodder came in all shapes and sizes, with different genetic flaws and purple face paint.

Sakura hadn’t been sure of his meaning but had continued to watch the Puppet Brigade on her days off from training, which were almost never, and quickly realized how very far above their skill levels her and Gaara really were. It made her wonder how skilled the Puppet Brigade could be if they weren’t subjugated to titles and ranks, how far ahead of themselves would they be with out those verbal limitations.

She was still wondering when there came a soft knock on the door to her room and Temari’s blonde head peeked around the corner as she opened the door without waiting for Sakura to answer.

The two girls grinned at one another.

“I was so happy when my father told me you would be joining us for dinner. The cook has been making all your favorite dishes since she heard you would be eating with us Sakura.” Temari smiled at her friend and kinda sister.

“Why would she do that?” Sakura asked.

“Well, because, you never eat with us...this is special.” Temari said looking at her, her grin still in place.

“I hope this goes well, I want you to eat with us every night. I know if you do, Gaara will, but I don’t know about Sasori Sama, he probably won’t. I think he hates us.” Temari frowned.

“He does.” Sakura said and then laughed at Temari’s expression of bewilderment.

“It isn't personal. Sasori Kun hates everyone, even Gaara a little bit.” Sakura laughed easily.

“But not you.” Temari said and nudged the pink faced girl.

“No, not me.” Sakura admitted.

She had often wondered why not her as well, but she thought she might understand, but didn’t wish to dwell on it for any length in case she was wrong...wishful thinking was dangerous, besides, she already had a family, her and Gaara...and Sasori kinda, she wasn’t sure what to call him. He wasn’t her brother, or father, not an Uncle or a cousin...he was just...Sasori Kun.

Kankuro was sitting by himself in the last seat on the left at the end of the table when she and Temari entered through the east doors of the dinning hall. There was only one seat on the narrowed end, presumably for Rasa and Sakura understood Temari’s comment, doubting Sasori Kun would wish to join them for dinner. Sasori would not sit at a table as Rasa’s inferior...ever.

“Took you long enough pineapple head.” Kankuro glared at his sister who glared back at his nickname.

“I told you not to call me that!” Temari screeched at him, a hand on her hip.

Sakura smiled at the siblings, their quarreling amused her. She sat down in the seat closest to the door, her back against the wall.

“I can call you whatever I want, beat me in a spar, then I’ll stop.” Kankuro taunted his sister gleefully.

“After dinner! You’re on! Sakura can be the judge!” Temari turned to Sakura who nodded.

“Her? She isn’t qualified to judge us, she’s the youngest, she’s even younger than Gaara!” Kankuro was furious.

“She is more qualified than you. Age does not define skill level, surely you must know that by now Kankuro.” Rasa spoke from the doorway.

Temari and Kankuro both bowed their heads and said a quiet greeting to their father. They hadn’t noticed their father enter the dining hall. Sakura rose from her chair and inclined her head politely.

“Thank you for the invitation Kazekage.” Sakura met his eyes briefly, then resumed her seat before he could even respond to her greeting, before he gave her leave to sit.

Kankuro’s mouth dropped open, while Temari’s eyes grew wide. Both siblings turned their heads to their father, for surely his wrath would be swift and deadly.

Rasa looked at the girl who had sat before etiquette dictated it proper, the pink haired girl who refused to give him the respect his title granted him from most without question...and smiled.

Temari choked and Kankuro gasped loudly, they had never seen their father smile once since their mother had died giving birth to Gaara over seven years ago…

Rasa walked to the head of the table and sat down, only after he had sat did Kankuro and Temari take their own seats.

Rasa motioned to Sakura with one hand and looked at his eldest son.

“Sakura is only three months younger than Gaara Kankuro and decades ahead of you in skill. I suggest you learn to respect her. I will consider your lack of manners due to the fact you have had very little if any interaction with your adopted sister until now and excuse you. However, do not forget, you may come to regret it in the future.” Rasa warned his son.

“Yes father.” Kankuro had enough sense to look ashamed and cast curious glances at Sakura from the other side of the table. 

Conversation was sparse throughout dinner aside from the beginning where Kankuro had been scolded. Sakura was both surprised and not surprised at the same time. Dinner with Sasori mainly consisted of battle tactics, warnings, advice and opinions or what Sasori like to call exhaling needlessly between bites. Dinner with the Kazekage was a blend of emotional trauma she had not entirely been prepared for.

“How is your training with my brother coming, Sakura?” Rasa asked her halfway through dinner.

“Very well.” She replied.

Rasa considered her words, even though they were the regular common words one typically used to respond to such a question, he knew they were said with more meaning than the typical person would encompass in such a typical response.

“I understand he has you working with different poisons now?” He asked her.

Sakura looked at the Kazekage, Sasori had warned her of his interest in her abilities, had warned her not to tell him anything, to not confirm any suggestive comments that might be considered usual assumptions...that Rasa was clever and to guard both her mind and her tongue around the man.

“It is possible.” She said taking a piece of salted pork in between her chopsticks and popping it into her mouth.

“Is it also possible that you have perfected your sensory jutsu where you use a cloud to sense where your enemies are, using the earth as a conductor?” He asked her knowing that no one knew about this ability but her, Gaara and his brother.

“Yes. However it is also possible I have not. Anything is possible Kazekage.” She said in a bored sort of whimsical tone.

Rasa grit his teeth...she was just like his damned stubborn pig headed brother Sasori. She showed no signs of stress, no blatant disrespect, she stood just one hair away from the fall, enough to insult you without actually insulting you, enough to let you know she knew what you were up to without calling you out on it. He narrowed his eyes at the girl.

“You and Gaara completed your last three missions in near record time. I simply assumed you had mastered the technique.” He tried a different approach.

“I never saw you for a fool, Kazekage.” Sakura set down her chopsticks and picked up her cup of juice.

“Excuse me?” Rasa had had enough of this dance, she was seven years old for kami’s sake.

“Only a fool assumes Kazekage.” Sakura set her cup of juice down. 

“If you’ll excuse me. I need to train before bed.” She rose from the table and inclined her head to Rasa politely.

His head jerked in response in what she considered an acknowledgement of her statement. No look was spared to Temari or Kankuro, but as she crossed the door from the dining hall to the corridor her feet paused long enough for her to say, “I would be happy to witness your spar tomorrow at dawn.” before she was gone and around the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, no big deal...smoochie smoochie guys :)


	12. Chapter 12

Temari was already waiting for her outside of her door at dawn. Sakura could feel her chakra, mellow and slightly charged as she paced back and forth waiting for her to wake up. Sakura sighed. The Sand siblings were a bit too much for her to deal with. She smiled to herself, wasn’t she too a sand sibling now? She both looked forward to and loathed the idea of being a sand sibling. The responsibility, the headache...did she really want that?

Sakura knew by opening that door, she was opening a whole new pathway in her life. Well, she laughed at herself once again, every journey begins with the first step, wasn’t that one of those cliches Sasori Kun always grumbled at when he heard someone say it within his hearing? She missed him...and Gaara, it had been less than twenty four hours since they had left.

She got out of bed and threw her shinobi gear on, she hoped they would be back soon. Gaara would be back sometime today but Sasori Kun...he wasn’t expected back for at least another week. She bit her lip, maybe she would go to their cave, the one to the north of Suna after Temari and Kankuro’s spar.

Sakura tied her hair back and up with the sash Temari had given her the first time she had shown her how to put on her shinobi gear...maybe being a sand sibling wasn’t so bad. Sakura pasted a smile on her face and opened the door.

It was ridiculous. Sakura was appalled. It wasn’t a spar, it was a joke. Kankuro was only two years older than her and Gaara, and Temari was only one year older than Kankuro...and yet neither of them knew how to fight worth a damn. ‘What the hell have they been doing this whole time Gaara and I have been training ‘, she thought. They were Gaara’s blood siblings, how could there be such a gap in their skill level between her and Gaara’s?

“Enlightening, isn’t it?” 

Sakura had known he was there and wondered what had taken him so long to show himself.

“It’s a joke. How is this possible?” She waved her hand at Temari who was laying on her back out of breath and Kankuro who was leaning up against one of his homemade puppets for support...his puppet was a joke as well.

“This is embarrassing.” She growled.

Rasa laughed, an action that had surprised even him. He cleared his throat.

“You underestimate your abilities. Temari and Kankuro are actually quite skilled for their ages. You and Gaara are simply...exceptionally rare. The skill you and my son poses at your age...is almost unheard of. Each village has one such individual, maybe. We here in Suna, I, am blessed to have three. You, Gaara and my brother Sasori.” Rasa looked down at the girl.

“I never knew you were so talkative Kazekage.” Sakura looked up at him.

“I’m not. Usually.”

“I heard you are also...talented.” Sakura said, looking him up and down, making no effort to hide her actions.

“Care to find out little Sakura?” Rasa granted her another smile, only this time it was more of a smirk, and for the first time since she had become a member of the royal family, she saw quite clearly Sasori and Rasa’s genetic resemblance, hair color notwithstanding.

“Am I to understand you are asking me to spar with you...Kazekage?” Sakura’s eyes danced with excitement.

“I am.”

“You’re on.” Sakura’s face broke out into a malicious grin, her blood thrummed menacingly in her heart and her fingers twitched.

“Temari, Kankuro, clear the field. Sakura and I are going to spar.” Rasa told his two eldest.

“What?!” Temari’s head popped up off of the ground.

“You’ve got to be joking.” Kankuro broke out into a fit of laughter.

One look at his father’s face however, told him, he wasn’t.

“Good luck.” Temari whispered to Sakura patting her on the shoulder as her and her brother walked off the field to give her and their father room for their spar.

Rasa and Sakura both inclined their heads and made the hand signs for a friendly spar.

Gold sand and dust rose swiftly in the air and shot out at the small pink haired girl in streams.

“Oh kami, he isn’t holding back is he.” Kankuro said in surprise and a slight bit of apprehension.

“That means Sakura is much better than we thought, or he wants her dead.” Temari said out of the side of her mouth , her eyes on the field.

Either option was as likely as the other. The siblings knew of their Father’s rivalry with their Uncle.

Sakura leapt into the air spinning skillfully, avoiding the Kazekage’s sand attack, just like she did with Gaara when they sparred. Twisting in the air she sent her chakra out around her in a cloud and let it sink into the earth before her feet touched back down on the ground.

Chakra strings shot out of the tips of her fingertips into the ground and moved with the chakra infused earth to shoot back up out of the ground behind the Kazekage and wrap around his ankles.

Rasa noticed the move a little too late and stumbled backward.

Temari and Kankuro both gasped audibly, their hands clasped over their mouths...she was good.

Rasa smiled again, for the third time that day, and broke the chakra strings from his ankles with his gold dust.

“Very good Sakura, but I know you have far more deadly attacks in your arsenal, why not use them...come girl, attack me with everything you have!” Rasa taunted her.

“Careful what you ask for Kazekage.” Sakura smirked, drawing all the moisture from the desert air around her with the help of her chakra and spit water bullet after water bullet out of her mouth at the Kazekage, whose eyes went wide as he hit the ground rolling to the side, his head whipping around to see her pull three kunai from her pouch and throw them at his heart.

A great wall of gold and sand flew up in the air blocking her, no doubt poisoned, kunai causing them to fall back down to the ground harmlessly.

“No sand manipulation today Sakura?” Rasa asked as he lowered his wall of sand and gold.

Waves of sand crashed down around her off setting her footing, she stumbled briefly before infusing chakra to her feet and riding out the remaining waves with ease.

“I had something a bit more impressive in mind.” She smirked, turning, her hand shot out and grabbed hold of the huge boulder sitting on the training field with a chakra infused arm and threw it across the field like a pebble at the Kazekage.

“Shit.” Temari and Kankuro breathed out simultaneously.

“I never knew she was so...so freaking awesome, how did we not know about her?” Kankuro was angry.

“Because our Uncle didn’t want us to know. Kankuro. He is going to be livid when he comes home and finds out Father challenged his student to a spar.” Temari said in a worried voice.

“Oh kami.” She gasped. 

“What will Gaara do?” Temari’s voice rose two octaves in her horror at the thought.

Temari was ten years old, she had been old enough to remember Gaara’s last rampage and she began to shake with fear even at the thought of it being a possibility.

“Stop.” She whispered.

“Please.” She said quietly as she watched Sakura dodge kunai, after kunai their Father threw at her.

Rasa could feel his son moving closer and closer to the village, and he saw Sakura’s head turn slightly toward the gate, she could feel him too. It was time to see just how close the two were and just how much control this little girl had over his son.

Without warning, Rasa drew up all the sand and gold dust of his desert that he could and sent it out in an unstoppable wave that engulfed the little girl, just as Gaara came racing over the last sand dune to Suna.

Sakura looked up at the massive tsunami of sand coming her way. She tried to jump, she tried to run, all she could do was infuse both of her fists with chakra, jump as high in the air as possible and slam the closest part of the tsunami of sand with both of her fists simultaneously diverting as much sand away from her as she could...but it wasn’t enough and she was soon enveloped in heavy sand that came crashing down over her head.

With her last breath, she took one last look at Suna and saw Gaara, racing toward her, hands outstretched, eyes wide, face contorted in rage and fear.

She was covered in sand and darkness, but through the sand she heard the crack, the roar and felt the tremor of something monstrous, something bloodthirsty and something horrifying.

‘Shukaku’, for it could be nothing else.

Gaara had seen Sakura’s pink head go under, he had seen her green eyes meet his teal and then she had disappeared under a wave of sand.

“Sakura!” His scream was immediately eclipsed by Shukaku’s roar as the tanuki broke free of the boy’s reserve and took control.

Huge paws flew out tossing Rasa aside like a rag and immediately started digging through the sand next to the spot Sakura’s little pink head had disappeared. Swipe after swipe Shukaku dug, faster and faster into the sand.

‘Be careful not to hurt her when you dig for her Shukaku’, Gaara’s voice flooded the back of Shukaku’s mind.

‘I can’t find her boy’, was Shukaku’s frantic response.

‘Let me’, Gaara said impatiently.

‘Fine! Just find her!’, they switched places, Shukaku’s form giving way to Gaara’s smaller one. He used his sand manipulation to sift gently back and forth moving the sand layer by layer until he saw her.

“Sakura!”, he fell to his knees pushing sand away from her head, away from her face.

“Sakura please, oh kami Sakura say something!” He was screaming as he tried to pull the rest of her body from the sand.

“Gaara, let me help.” Temari was by his side trying to pull the little girl from the small pit Gaara had dug out to find her.

Gaara rounded on Temari with hatred in his eyes, “You! You let this happen!” Sand rose up around him and struck his sister down and across the field where she turned and tumbled until she moved no more.

“Gaara stop!” Kankuro yelled as he ran to their sister to help her.

“You too, you’re to blame as well!” Gaara screamed, spit flying from his open mouth in furry.

Rasa stood and watched, silently, seeing what his son would do next. He had regained control of the beast...or…

‘Did the beast...care for the girl too? Were they working together for her?’, the thought was almost ludicrous...but…

Gaara moved the sand until he could pull Sakura’s body from the pit. He lifted her up with his sand and held her close to him, his face buried in her now loose hair.

“Sakura.” He cried, tears fell like rain down his cheeks.

She moaned.

“Sakura!” Gaara saw her eyes flutter and started shaking her, trying to wake her up.

“Stop Gaara, please.” She whispered.

“Oh kami, thank kami you’re alive, thank you, thank you.” He said over and over, his face buried in her hair, his arms around her as he sobbed uncontrollably.

“Water.” Sakura whispered, her voice hoarse.

“I don’t have any on me, I drank it all as soon as I saw the Suna gates and knew I was home.” He panicked.

“I’ll take us to our room.” He clutched her in his arms. 

He hadn’t perfected it for himself yet, much less with someone else but there was no time. Sakura needed water, she needed rest and he would make sure she got it. 

‘Shukaku, help’. A whirl of sand rose up around them and flew out toward the manse on the wind and they were gone.

Rasa watched the little girl and his son disappear right before his eyes. He looked at his other two children, Temari was sipping water from a bottle that Kankuro held to her lips, she was fine. Rasa sighed and walked back to his office, he had paperwork to do and the future of Suna to think about.

Gaara had transformed into Shukaku when he saw Sakura in danger and thought she might have died, but he had taken control back from Shukaku, almost like they had talked it over and the beast had relinquished control back to the boy because he knew the boy could find her easier than he could. It almost seemed like they had worked together to find and save the girl. Rasa drummed his fingers on his desk.

If his assumption was correct...Sakura was essential in controlling Shukaku…

Gaara held the glass of water to Sakura’s lips for her, gently tipping it a little at a time so she didn’t drink too much too quickly and choke.

Sakura tried to gulp the water down and was getting frustrated that Gaara kept tipping the glass back every time she tried to suck more in.

“Give me the glass Gaara.” She said, trying to take the glass from him.

“No, you have to drink it slowly, I know this stuff.” He said patiently.

“Give it to me.” Sakura glared at him.

“No Sakura, listen to me, you have to drink it slowly.” He hissed at her losing what little patience he thought he had with her.

“Gaara give me the stupid glass!” She raised her voice to him and glared at him more fiercely.

“NO SAKURA!” He threw the glass against the wall and it shattered.

“NO!” he yelled at her again.

Shukaku was yelling at her in his head too, he gripped his hair and pulled on it to stop Shukaku’s voice.

“Stop!” He yelled again, dropping down onto his knees.

“She’s safe! She’s safe!” He yelled as his body slammed into the wall, as he stumbled back and forth gripping his hair more frantically.

“Gaara?” Sakura called out to him timidly, she had never seen him act like this before.

“Shut up! This is your fault! This is your fault! Why? Why were you fighting with my Father!” He turned on her and started to stalk her.

Sakura slid across their bed and onto the floor. “Gaara it was just a spar, it was…” But she didn’t get to finish her sentence.

Gaara’s fist slammed down on top of their shared dresser, the wood cracked beneath his fist.

“Sasori Sama told you to stay away, he told you not to talk to my Father, you knew not to talk to him!” He was stalking her again.

“Gaara, it was nothing, it was…”

“YOU ALMOST DIED!” he screamed, spit flying from his mouth hitting her in the face.

“But I didn't, because you saved me.” She said coming closer to him.

She reached out slowly with her hand toward his face. “Thank you Gaara.” Her fingers touched his cheeks that were stained with tears.

“I’m sorry.” She said softly, her fingers moving across his cheek to cup it in her small paw. “I’m sorry Gaara. Thank you for saving me. I missed you.”

“Sakura.” He broke down and collapsed to the floor, his hands falling from his hair, his shoulders slumping.

“I thought...I was going to lose you.” His arms shot out and pulled her hard up against his chest, his face buried in her neck and shoulder joint as he sobbed all over her shirt, his hands grasping her back, and her hair that ran down her back.

“You promised. You promised me you would never leave me.” He sobbed.

“Never Gaara, because you will always be there to protect me right?” She smiled at him when he lifted his head to look at her.

“I promise.” He said quietly and moved back to lay his head on her shoulder. “I will always be here to protect you. You’re mine. Mine!” He gripped her hair in his fists, posessively.

‘Ours’, Shukaku watched the children through Gaara’s eyes. ‘I will help you protect her boy, always.’ The tankui promised Gaara and Gaara nodded into Sakura’s hair as she dragged him backward towards their bed.

‘Always Shukaku’, Gaara promised the tanuki.


	13. Chapter 13

“I’m sorry.” Gaara said for the seventh time since they had crawled into their bed together.

“I’m sorry too Gaara. I know I shouldn’t have accepted his challenge...I just, wanted to see how good I really was.” She knew it was a poor excuse, she knew she had been foolish and she knew Sasori was going to be more than a little upset at her for this when he got back to Suna.

“How was your mission Gaara?” She asked him now that they had both calmed down.

“Easy, it was one village with only three teams of Genin and Chunin. I thought it would be more of a challenge the way Father described it, but it wasn’t.” He rested his head on their pillow beside hers as they looked at their ceiling together. 

It had been his first solo village wipe, perhaps his Father had simply underestimated his abilities and what he could do without Sakura with him. More than likely it was a test to see if he would lose control without her by his side.

“It’s still early yet, are you hungry? I didn’t have breakfast yet, want to go to the market?” She asked him.

“Yeah, if my Father hasn’t locked us in. He said he wouldn’t anymore but I don’t trust him.” Gaara growled.

“Why did he ask you to spar with him?” Gaara demanded the heat returning to his voice.

Sakura hesitated, tonight would be a full moon, she had never seen Gaara so angry before. She wasn’t scared of him, but she chose her words carefully.

“I was judging a spar between Temari and Kankuro, it was pathetic to watch and I said as much to your Father who had also come to watch. He asked me if I wanted to spar. It really was innocent Gaara.” She insisted.

“Sakura. Nothing that my Father suggests is innocent. He never does anything without a reason.” He was starting to get upset again. How could she have been so stupid. He growled.

“Are you growling at me?” Sakura had had enough of this, she didn’t care that there was a full moon tonight, since when did Gaara growl at her like this.

“I am! It was stupid to accept his challenge Sakura. Sasori Sama is going to be really mad at you when he gets back.” He said sitting up and glaring at her again.

“I’m not going to sit here and argue with you about something that can’t be erased, it is pointless and a waste of time, so either get over it or don’t, but stop growling at me or you’re going to eat alone.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him as hard as he was glaring at her.

They sat there for what had to be fifteen minutes, each starring the other down...or at least trying to. Gaara gave in first.

“Fine, let’s go get some food, this is ridiculous.” He said hopping off the bed.

“It’s not like you’ll admit you were wrong or anything.” He muttered loud enough for her to hear but low enough for him to fake innocence.

“What was that?” Sakura stepped up close to his face.

“I said, you’re impossible!” He waved his hands in the air.

Sakura’s mouth twitched, his hair was sticking out in all directions, his face was red with anger and he had just waved his hands around and over his head...she couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

“Oh! Your face!” She pointed at his face and laughed even harder when he scowled at her.

“Sakura……” Gaara hissed.

Peels of laughter bounced off their bedroom walls.

“Sakura!” Gaara had a smirking glint in his eyes.

“Oh crap.” Sakura ran from the room down the hall and out the front door of the manse with Gaara hot on her heels.

He tackled her to the ground just before the market street and tickled her, using his sand to hold her arms down he poked and prodded her ruthlessly until she almost peed her pants.

Both of them lay panting side by side grinning at one another as a shadow fell over them.

“You two are the weirdest you know that?” Temari looked down at them and smiled.

“Pineapple head.” Gaara said to his sister in greeting.

“Did Kankuro tell you to call me that?” Temari asked, her voice cracking slightly.

“Yep.” Gaara looked at her with a blank expression.

“I’m going to kill him!” Temari stomped off and Sakura broke out into fresh fits of giggles followed closely by Gaara as they walked down the main street of Suna.

“Let’s get some sweet rolls.” Sakura said and pulled Gara by the hand through the market.

An old woman looked down at the two children from her bun stand and smiled.

“Well if it isn’t the young lord and his little girlfriend, so nice to see you two today.” The old woman's eyes crinkled at them.

“I’m not his girlfriend.” Sakura glowered at the woman who merely pet her on the head and smiled indulgently at her.

Old people taking liberties in the name of cuteness were the worst in Sakura’s opinion.

Gaara didn’t say anything, his face was comically blank.

“What can I get you two cuties today?” The woman asked once she was done petting Sakura, whose hair was messed and tangled now from the old woman’s attention.

Sakura growled and finger combed her locks while Gaara ordered for them.

“Four sweet rolls please.” Gaara said politely.

“Of course, Of course.” The old woman threw six sweet rolls into a paper bag and handed them to Gaara.

“He said four please, we only have enough money for four grandmother.” Sakura addressed the old woman with respect.

“Oh dear, it’s no bother no bother. You deserve extra, for helping our young lord here, you just keep up the good work dear, we all appreciate it, you’re our little Angel of Suna don’t you know?” The old woman smiled at Sakura.

Gaara and Sakura bowed their thanks to the woman and left for the East wall to eat their breakfast. 

Gaara and Sakura had been sneaking out into the market more and more lately but no one had ever called her an angel. Most citizens looked at her curiously and moved out of her and Gaara’s way to let them pass but hardly anyone spoke to them, unless they had to.

The memory of the woman who had spilled soup on Sakura had still been fresh in their minds. At least that is what Sakura had assumed.

Sakura bit into one of the sweet rolls and closed her eyes in bliss. “This is delicious!” She hummed her approval as she chewed and quickly took another bite.

Gaara nodded, they were very good, he thought, shoving the rest of his in his mouth nearly whole and grabbing another.

Sakura laughed. Gaara’s table manners were unusually dainty for a boy, she had teased him ruthlessly the first few months they had been friends. So to see him literally shove almost a whole sweet roll into his mouth was hilarious to her.

Halfway through their meal an Anbu dropped down in front of them bowing his head almost to the ground.

“Lord Gaara, please do not eat any food that has not been tested or prepared for you by the royal cook. Orders of the Kazekage.” The Anbu said politely.

“We’re almost done, it’s a little late for a warning.” Sakura ate the last two bites of her sweet roll and cocked her head at the Anbu.

“Besides, I already checked it.” She said.

“You...did?” The Anbu was surprised.

“Of course I did. I am Akasuna no Sasori’s apprentice. Do you think I wouldn’t?” She eyed the Anbu with interest, ‘Were the Anbu more skilled than the Puppet Brigade?’, she wondered.

“I do not know what Sasori Sama’s apprentice would or wouldn’t do. It is not my place to make such bold assumptions. I apologize Sakura Sama.” The Anbu’s mask touched the ground in front of her.

“Please Anbu San, you do not have to call me Sama.” Sakura wasn’t sure how she felt about all this attention. First the sweet roll lady had called her the Angel of Suna, and now this Anbu was calling her Sama.

“I want to show you my appreciation, for all you have done for Gaara Sama.” The Anbu said simply.

“I haven’t done anything. We’re friends, just friends is all.” She wasn’t sure if this was by design or if she had missed something the last time she had been in the village with Sasori Kun, but the villagers were acting oddly.

“Best friends.” Gaara corrected her.

“Well, yes best friends, but that doesn’t mean anything.” Sakura started to say but Gaara interrupted her.

“It means everything Sakura.” Gaara picked up her hand and squeezed it. “Let them show you their appreciation, if they want to.”

Sakura’s mouth opened and closed, she had no words. She was no one. She was the daughter of a drunken merchant who had never even wanted her.

“You are dismissed.” Gaara waved the Anbu away with his other hand and turned all of his attention back to Sakura.

“Have you not heard the talk Sakura? Do you not know what they say about us in the village?” He asked her curiously.

“What? What do they say, no I haven't heard. I don’t pay attention to such meaningless frivolity.” She rolled her eyes.

“They say we are destined to marry when we grow up, that my Father has already made arrangements for us to be wed.” The next words caught in his throat as her face turned red.

“You really didn’t know?” He asked her again.

He wouldn’t have brought it up if he had known she didn’t know, she knew everything...he thought she knew about that too.

Sakura shook her head and the delicious sweet rolls she had eaten turned to lead in her stomach.

“Why would he do that, why would he say such a thing Gaara?” 

Gaara was a little more than hurt she wasn’t jumping for joy at the prospect of marrying him, but he thought perhaps she didn’t understand what that meant. For all she had been a part of their family for over two years now, she hadn’t been born into royalty and probably didn’t understand what it would mean to be married to him.

“I am the Kazekage’s strongest son. When he dies or retires, his title goes to me, Sakura. With you as my wife to help calm me, to help me control my tailed beast, the village no longer fears me. Together we are strong, like Sasori Sama says.” He watched her, wary of the fire sparking in her eyes.

“No one asked me what I wanted.” She stood up and glared at him as if it were his fault.

“No one asked me either.” He pointed out.

“But I don’t mind. If it’s you.” He blushed a little.

Sakura stared.

“Gaara. I love you, you know that right?:” She sat back down and took his hand in hers again.

Gaara’s heart jumped in his chest.

“We’re only seven Gaara. There is so much I want to do still.” She said, when a thought occurred to her.

“Does Sasori Kun know?” She asked Gaara.

Gaara shook his head, “I don’t think so, but he is Sasori Sama, he might know.” Gaara knew his Uncle made it a point to know everything he could, he had live puppets hidden all over the five great nations working as spies so he would know everything about anything important before anyone else.

“Has he said anything about it? He is my guardian isn’t he? It is his decision as much as it is mine right?” She asked.

“I don’t know Sakura. I thought you had already agreed to it when my Father told me about it.” Gaara looked upset, he should have known that his Father had been lying.

“We don’t have to get married, Sakura, we can stay friends.” He smiled at her.

“I repeat, we are only seven years old Gaara. Marriage isn’t even a consideration at this point!” She threw her hands up in the air. He didn’t understand.

“Most royalty have their intended picked out for them at birth, this isn’t all that different if you ask me.” Gaara tried to explain the workings of the royal court to her but she wasn’t listening.

“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying Gaara. I’m not marrying anyone.” She said firmly.

“Oh.” Gaara looked down at their joined hands.

“Well, that’s okay too I guess, that way we can stay together forever like we promised.” He smiled at her and she nodded her head.

“As friends.” She smiled back at him.

“As friends.” Gaara agreed, ignoring Shukaku’s protests in his head.

“The villagers like you.” Gaara told her with a small smile.

“It’s because they like you, that they are starting to forgive me.” He looked down at their joined hands again.

“I don’t care if you never want to get married. It’s enough to just be with you. Besides, if you don’t want to get married, you won’t be marrying anyone else, so it’s okay.” He said his eyes glazed a bit.

“What’s wrong, is Shukaku still upset at me?” Sakura knew when his eyes glazed over he was talking to the tanuki in his head.

Gaara looked out over the east wall of Suna.

“Not at you.” Gaara said, distracted. 

“He is calling me a fool and laughing at me. I don’t think he likes me very much sometimes but it’s okay. He helped me save you. We both care about you, so I don’t mind, he can yell at me every now and then.” Gaara smiled at her.

“He seems to be talking to you a lot more lately.” Sakura wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but she knew that the tanuki liking her was a good sign, it meant he could care, he could love, and that maybe someday, Gaara would be able to find peace with him.

Shukaku looked at the girl through his vessel’s eyes. ‘Such foolish naive children. One day, and one day soon your friendship won’t be enough. He will want more flower, he will want more and so will you. I only hope you will want each other.’

Shukaku closed his eyes and grumbled. His only competition as far as the tanuki could see was the Uncle. Tanuki mate for life, and there was no room in Shukaku’s heart to share. He knew the boy was the same. A small wicked smile curved the racoon's lips. ‘You have no idea what you’re in for my little flower’.

Raucous laughter filled Gaara’s head and he frowned. ‘What was the tanuki laughing at now’, Gaara didn’t understand him sometimes.


	14. Chapter 14

Temari walked back to the manse slowly, satisfied that her brother was okay after finding Sakura, that Sakura was okay and that Gaara wasn’t going to let Shukaku loose in the village she opened the door to her home and walked inside.

Kankuro was waiting for her by his door, his room was next to hers on the second floor of the manse. Sasori, Gaara and Sakura’s room were on the third floor, while their Father had the Kazekage’s wing of rooms to himself on the other end of the manse by the gardens.

“How is she?” Kankuro asked, the worry clear in his tone.

“They were playing in the village when I left them, tickling one another and laughing like idiots.” Temari smiled at her brother.

“That’s so weird, he’s completely different than how he used to be.” Kankuro said to his sister who came into his room and sat on one of his chairs in his sitting room.

“She’s changed him, she keeps him calm. That was really risky of Father. He could have really killed her.” Temari pursed her lips in thought.

“Sasori Sama would have killed us all, you know how much he hates us. He would have killed all of us then left the village if Father had killed her.” Kankuro sat down in the chair opposite of Temari.

“Do you think Father would have done that, knowing he could have killed her?” Temari asked out loud but more to herself than to Kankuro.

“He knew what he was doing.” Kankuro was convinced their Father had done it on purpose.

“So, he was...what testing Gaara? Father is an excellent sensor he knew Gaara was close by.” Temari nodded to herself, the picture becoming more and more clear by the moment.

“I think, it was a test.” She looked up at her brother.

“You’ve heard the talk haven’t you? They say Father spoke to the council, he is pushing for a marriage between them, claiming it is for the good of Suna, but the council is fighting him on it. She is a civilian born with no bloodline, no money, no property.” Temari said, thinking of her own large dowry sitting in the Kazekage’s safe.

“They haven’t seen her fight, they don’t know how important she is to Gaara.” Kankuro said.

The two eldest siblings were quiet for a time.

“Father underestimates how much Sasori cares about the girl as well.” Kankuro shoved at the thought.

“Sasori Sama is not one to give up something he thinks is his...and Sakura IS his.” Kankuro pointed out as if his sister wasn’t already aware.

“You don’t think he’d...take her and leave do you?” Temari’s head shot up as the thought occurred to her.

“Naw, he wouldn’t do that...do you think?” Kankuro said, his eyes fearful at the possibility.

“What will Gaara do?” Temari shuddered. “If he does.”

“We’re all going to die horribly painful deaths aren’t we.” Kankuro sighed and leaned his head back up against his chair and closed his eyes to the rest of the world.

It was the dawn of the third day that Sasori had been on the front lines of the war, this ridiculous, pointless war. The previous day he had taken out half of the enemy forces in a mere six hours, and the other half the day before that. 

He had been tying the string to his bag preparing to leave when word had come in from the scouts reserves were headed their way and that an army consisting of twice as many shinobi from the enemies allied country would be coming to join them on the battlefield.

Sasori had sighed, untied his bag and removed his, now completed, red puppet performance scroll. This needed to end today, he had a bad feeling in his stomach and didn’t want Sakura alone in Suna without him for much longer. He had laid his plan perfectly, he knew his brother, better than his brother knew him. Still, maybe he should have brought the brat with him…

His red hair glowed brightly in the morning sun as he faced a horde of enemy shinobi. The Suna troops lined up in rows behind him, teams grouped with teams, status with others of their same and the medics in the back. Suna had only two medics, they didn’t waste their time on training medics when anyone with chakra could be better utilized on the battlefield fighting, besides the Leaf medics were there because of their alliance.

Sasori sighed. What were they waiting for, they were just standing there looking at him. He hated waiting. Sasori drew his red scroll from his belt and turned a half head back to the Suna ranks behind him and drawled, “Get the loose ends, I want this over quickly.”

“Yes Sasori Sama”. Rang out behind him.

“Performance of one hundred red puppets.” Sasori smirked, as the whites of their enemies' eyes became visible...their fear was palatable.

‘As it should be’, Sasori smiled to himself as the first puppet out of his one hundred flew through the air impaling two enemy shinobi at the same time.

His face betrayed nothing but boredom, his fingers twitched, pulled and pushed, his body moved gracefully across the battlefield and back, his red puppets swarming around him. None touched him, none could even come near him and it was over far too soon for his taste.

Sasori wiped a splash of blood from his face where it tickled his nose in annoyance. 

He grabbed the first Suna nin to pass by him, “Send a missive to Kumo, tell them I am declaring this war over. If they do not concede I will join forces with our allies in the Leaf and bring the war to the Raikage and the Tsuchikage’s front door.” The shinobi nodded, his mouth hanging open, then ran off in the opposite direction.

He tucked his red scroll back into his belt and stepped over the sea of corpses, off the battlefield, walking East toward Suna.

Gaara had his head in Sakura’s lap as she read to him from one of their books. They had woken up late, trained together on one of the rarely used training fields Sasori had told them to use when he was gone and had gone back to the manse for lunch.

The remnants of lunch lay forgotten on the sitting room table as Sakura’s voice filled the room. Gaara had his eyes closed but opened them when he felt Sakura’s body jerk underneath his head.

“What is it?” He tilted his head back a little to look up at her.

“Sasori Kun, he’s back.” There was a note of pure joy in her voice with an underlining of what could only be described as...dread.

Sakura felt his signature moving fast toward the Kazekage’s office, she felt her stomach twist and turn with apprehension. “I think, I should pack a bag, Gaara, just in case.”

Gaara sat up abruptly, “In case of what? He’ll be upset I’m sure but, he won’t kick you out Sakura, he would never do that.” 

“I’m not afraid he’ll kick me out Gaara. I’m afraid when he finds out Rasa goaded me into a spar that he’ll want us to leave Suna.” She admitted.

Gaara frowned, his eyes wavered. “No, I won’t let him. You’ll stay here, he can leave if he wants, you’re not going anywhere.” Gaara gripped her hands in his.

“Gaara, stop. I’m not saying that’s what will happen, but it is a possibility, surely you know that.” She pulled her hands from his grasp and grabbed her bag out of the top drawer of their dresser.

Sakura froze, her hand half in half out of her bag when Sasori’s chakra exploded like a bomb. She lifted her head and turned toward the window in their room and looked out toward the Kazekage’s office. It didn’t take a sensor nin to know that Sasori had just unleashed all of his killing intent on the Kazekage.

“Sasori Kun.” His name escaped her lips and she flew from the window in their room, before Gaara could stop her, to the Kazekage’s office, jumping through the window to land beside Sasori with a soundless cloud of sand that rose up around her feet like a cloud. Gaara appeared at her side in his own small swirl of sand a moment later.

“Leave.” Sasori had already pulled his puppets from their scrolls and Rasa already had a swirl of gold dust flowing around him.

“I will not leave you Sasori Kun.” Sakura took a defensive stance against the Kazekage beside her master.

Gaara didn’t say anything but his sand rose up around him as well as he stood beside Sakura.

Sasori looked from the boy to the girl beside him, then to his brother.

“You were about to banish me from the village I think, well, go on, but I think you should reconsider. It appears your son will be leaving with us if you banish me, for you surely know if I leave...so does she.” Sasori placed his hand on Sakura’s head, who nodded.

“Where are your Anbu brother, surely everyone in the village felt my killing intent, why are they not here?” Sasori continued, Rasa wasn’t the only one with his spies in the village.

Rasa’s face was reddening.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, ‘Why weren’t they here’, that was a very good question.

“Anbu?” Sakura called out with a nervous look at Sasori.

Two masked Anbu knelt before Sakura, their fist to the ground, the other arm behind their backs, head bent low, “Yes Princess?”

Sasori smirked. So those rumors were true as well...

“I’m not a princess.” Sakura stammered.

“Yes, you are.” Gaara growled next to her.

“It seems the village has spoken Rasa, she is their Princess and your little plan to use her to manipulate your son has backfired.” Sasori said, his hand still on Sakura’s head.

“So, you want to be Kazekage then I suppose brother?” Rasa spat out through clenched teeth.

“No. Kazekage. I never wanted your job. However, if you put Sakura in danger ever again to test your son’s affection for her, or to use her to control the one tails I will strip you piece by piece of everything you hold dear.” Sasori said evenly.

“Do not forget who won this war for you Rasa.” Sasori said menacingly.

“What is that supposed to mean…” Rasa’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“Look around you Kazekage. Your son stands with me, the strongest most talented of your brood, his only friend and my apprentice have the loyalty of your personal Anbu. You should already know what that means.” Sasori turned and walked toward the door of the office.

“Gaara, Sakura...come, there are things that must be said between us.” Sasori walked out of the room.

“Thank you.” Sakura placed one small paw on each of the Anbu’s heads, turned and took Gaara’s hand following Sasori out of the room.

Sasori stood before Sakura and Gaara where they sat on the couch in his sitting room looking up at him.

“I’m disappointed in your Sakura. You allowed Rasa to manipulate you into a spar. A spar that resulted in further manipulation of your friend Gaara. You understand now don’t you, what his goal was by asking you to dinner?” Sasori’s amber eyes bore into hers.

His eyes fell on her bag that was half packed on the floor by the connecting door to their room.

“Were you going to run away?” He asked more curiously than upset at the thought.

“I thought you would want to leave. I realized after, what Rasa had been trying to do, that he had been using me.” She couldn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Look at me when you speak to me girl.” Sasori reached out and tipped her chin up to his.

Sakura met his gaze and swallowed hard.

“I thought I warned you, I thought I had taught you better than this Sakura. Learn from this girl, do not make this mistake again, don’t let others use and manipulate you for their own gain, for their own purposes.” He dropped her chin from his grasp and turned to Gaara.

A sort of pained look crossed Sasori’s face and he cleared his throat. Sakura’s eyes that had been in her lap looked up at him.

“Thank you Gaara.” Sasori finally said to the boy who blinked rapidly as though he couldn’t believe the words that had just come out of his Uncle’s mouth.

Sasori never said thank you, he never appreciated anything or anyone, his standards for himself and others were far too high for such a common social nicety as to thank someone for saving his apprentice's life.

Gaara nodded wordlessly, that’s why Sasori tolerated the boy...no annoying fuss.

“Would he really have banished you Sasori Kun?” Sakura asked.

“Of course, this would have been the perfect reason to banish me too. I have been too useful to him on the front lines, he couldn’t banish me before, but now that I won the war for him, he no longer has a use for me. Now, I am just a thorn in his side that he desperately wants to get rid of.” Sasori smirked amused at how difficult he made his brother’s life.

“You won the war?” Gaara asked.

“Yes. I killed all the troops they sent to oppose us, they have no one left to fight for them. The Raikage will back down, the Leaf has The Yellow Flash. Kumo knows there is nothing else they can do, they aren’t allied with anyone other than the Land of Lightning. There are no other options for them.” He said simply as though he had planned it all out before he had left and that’s when Sakura realized...he had.

“You knew...Sasori Kun, you knew he would do this, you knew Rasa would try to get to me while you were gone didn’t you.” She was a little pissed herself now.

“Of course I knew girl. He sent the boy on a solo mission not an hour before summoning me to send me to the front lines, it would take a fool to not see his plan.” He raised his eyebrow to her.

“So...you were testing me?” She asked him wary of his answer.

“Yes and you failed miserably.” He gave her a steady look.

“Why did you accept his challenge?” He asked her curiously.

Sakura looked at Gaara. “I wanted to know how good I was.”

Sasori sat down on a chair across from them and chose his next words carefully. “If you want to know how skilled you are, ask me from now on. I have never lied to you to spare your feelings and I never will.” He told her seriously.

“Since you wonder though, you’re very talented Sakura, perhaps even more talented than I was at your age, and that’s saying quite a lot.” He said with a real smile, without arrogance. It was the truth and she saw it for the gift it was.

“Thank you Sasori Kun.” She got up from the couch and hugged him hard.

His arms were stiff at his sides, his head jerked to look down over her pink hair to see her little hands grasping onto his shirt.

“That’s enough girl. As punishment for your nativity neither you nor Gaara will be awarded the title of Jounin, because you both failed your last tests.” He cleared his throat again and pushed her small body away from him.

“Last tests?” Gaara asked him speaking for the first time since they had sat down together.

“Yes, you failed to control your beast and Sakura failed to see past Rasa’s deception.

“Wait!” Sakura gave Sasori an angry look.

“You planned this with Rasa?” She asked, appalled.

“Of course not girl, I knew what he would do and planned my intentions to overlap his own to my advantage. A good shinobi lays the base for a plan, a better shinobi plans off someone else’s base and uses their own terrain against them.” He gave Sakura a fixed eye. “Remember that.”

“Yes Sasori Kun.” She was deflated.

“Now, since the war is over I have things I need to do. I’m going to my workroom. I’ll be back for dinner.” He rose and left the two children alone in his sitting room to think about what he had said.

Gaara turned to Sakura, “He ended the war...alone.”

Sakura nodded. “He said I was more talented than he was at my age.”

“We need to get stronger, Sakura.” Gaara said what she had already been thinking.

“Let’s learn from our mistakes.” She had to do better. 

“I don’t want to disappoint Sasori Kun ever again.” She said quietly.

“If my Father had banished him, would you have gone with him, Sakura?” Gaara asked her as they walked to their room.

Sakura grabbed her bag and started to unpack her things back into their dresser.

“I would have had to Gaara, he’s...Sasori Kun. I owe him for everything I have.” She shut the drawer and turned to face him.

“Would you have come with us?” She asked.

Gaara couldn’t believe she even had to ask him such a pointless question. “I promised you I would never leave you. If you leave, I will follow.”

Sakura hoped it would always be like this, that they would always be together but a little voice in the back of her head, the voice of logic told her that this wouldn’t last forever, that things were changing around them and they would need to change with it. 

She didn’t like that voice, she didn’t want to change, or have things around her change. She loved Gaara, she loved Sasori and she had loved every moment of the past three and a half years with her new family. 

No, everything wasn’t perfect, but compared to where she had come from, what her life had been like before Gaara, before Sasori, it was pretty damn close to it...the closest she had ever been to true happiness.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder, not cannon. Ages are skewed and not accurate, I changed them to fit my story...as such...events are also not canon :)

Eight months later a team of Konoha shinobi came to Suna with the final draft of their newly reformed alliance terms. Both the Suna and the Leaf council agreed that due to the efforts of both villages in the war their alliance was stronger than when it had been made in haste and desperation when the second war had broken out and that the terms of the agreement needed to be adjusted.

Sakura stood beside Gaara as they watched the Konoha team walk down the main street of Suna toward the manse. They would be joining the royal family for dinner that evening and take rooms in the guest house attached to the manse via the garden near the Kazekage’s rooms.

“They’re strong.” Sakura whispered to Gaara who was beside her.

Gaara nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. He and Sakura had just had their eighth birthdays. Even though their birthdays were four months apart, they had decided to celebrate both of their birthdays on the same day. Technically Sakura wouldn’t be eight for another two months. 

“They’re a bunch of tree hugging bleeding hearts.” Sasori had come up behind them and looked over their shoulders. “The alliance is useful though, they have a superior medical program that Suna will benefit from.”

“Medical program.” Sakura said with interest.

“It isn’t for you girl, you are much more important and too talented to be a mere medic nin.” Sasori practically scoffed at the idea of Sakura becoming a medic nin.

Sakura infused her fists with her chakra and looked at them, “But Sasori Kun, medical jutsu isn’t much different than my enhanced strength. In fact, I have been reading on medical jutsu in the library. I think I could do it.”

“It isn’t a question of if you can do it or not Sakura, you don’t need it. You and Gaara are practically untouchable.” He protested, he couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with her.

“You said to learn as much as I could about everything, wouldn’t that include medical jutsu?” She wanted to learn medical jutsu and she wasn’t going to let this go. 

She loved her strength, she loved her knowledge of poisons and antidotes, but she also knew one day at some point one of the three of them would run into an enemy that was stronger, smarter and a medic in their little group couldn’t hurt.

“I said no girl.” Sasori flared his chakra in warning, she had never pushed this hard for anything before and he wondered, ‘Did she want to learn how to heal that badly, or was it the beginning of those damned hormones everyone has been trying to warn him about’...

Gaara and Sakura shared a look that was not lost on Sasori.

Sakura looked up at Sasori, “I could figure out how to weaponize it. If I did that, would you let me learn how to be a medic?”

Sasori took a deep measured breath and walked away from the two brats without saying a word.

“I think you’re wearing him down.” Gaara grinned at her and Sakura grinned back.

“Sasori Kun is passive aggressive, he might try to poison me at dinner.” She said only half joking.

“True.” Gaara responded nodding solomely. “It would give the Konoha shinobi something to tell their village when they get back.” He smirked and then collapsed into wild peels of laughter with her.

“Idiots.” Sasori peeked back into the room at the children.

Gaara watched the Konoha shinobi walk into the dinning hall one at a time. It was a team of four and he wondered why four of them, was it because this was to finalize the agreement between the two villages? Suna Teams were two or three nin usually, or one elite like himself or Sakura. 

They each wore a green flak jacket over navy blue long sleeved shinobi shirts with matching shinobi pants, black boots and some of them had black gloves on with metal guards sewn into the tops.

Gaara much preferred the Suna shinobi uniforms, but that’s what he was used to. None of the Suna Royal family were in their uniforms today though, they were dressed in nicer clothes but not quite formal wear. Gaara looked over at Sakura who was also eyeing the Leaf shinobi with interest. She wore a dress, a little kimono robe dress and someone had done her hair, piling it up on her head with little sparkling pins shoved into it.

Gaara pulled out one of the pins from her hair and sniffed it. ‘Poisoned’, he smirked and shoved it back in her hair after she had given him a dirty look.

Sasori was annoyed. He didn’t want to be here, he didn’t want to talk to these people and he didn’t like how Gaara had given away that Sakura’s hair ornaments had been dipped in poison. Her idea, not his, but he would have told her to do it if she hadn’t already done it herself. He looked at his student, she looked quite nice in her little robe, he would have to buy her more, it would be good for missions. A cute little girl threw an enemy off more quickly than a barrage of senbon. Leaf shinobi were particularly vulnerable to such tactics.

Sasori surveyed the Konoha shinobi as they settled into their seats. Only one...had noticed Gaara sniffing Sakura’s hair pin. Only one, knew they were poisoned. His eyes had opened in surprise. ‘Only one worthy nin among them’, Sasori hummed to himself.

Sakura had seen the Konoha shinobi notice Gaara’s movements and had kept her eyes on him since only to find he had been doing the same, with her. In fact, he was still looking at her now...and he was smiling at her. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the boy who couldn’t be more than three or four years older than herself, if that. He laughed. She scoffed and turned away from him, her arms crossed over her chest, she wasn’t impressed.

Sasori’s eyes fixed onto the dark eyed boy until the Kazekage rose from his seat next to him and started the introductions.

“I hope your trip to Suna was a pleasant one and hope you feel welcome during your stay while we work out the final stages of our new and hopefully improved alliance between our two esteemed villages.” Rasa inclined his head to their Konoha guests, who bowed halfway in their seats to him.

“This is my brother, Sasori of the Red Sand, no doubt you have heard of him.” Rasa gestured to Sasori who sat beside him looking bored and who didn’t make any effort to rise and bow to their guests.

“This is my daughter Temari, my eldest, her brother Kankuro, my second eldest. Beside Sasori is Sakura, my fourth and then Gaara, my third.” Rasa introduced his children. Temari and Kankuro bowed politely, while Sakura and Gaara merely inclined their heads gracefully from their seats.

A small murmur went up around the room, several of the Suna council members who had been invited glared openly at Sasori, Sakura and Gaara, but Rasa merely laughed.

“Please forgive my youngest, this is their first inter village meeting.” Rasa smiled diplomatically at the nods from the Leaf nin.

When Rasa was seated the Team leader from the Leaf rose and bowed a half bow.

“I am Hayate Gekko. This is Tenzo, to my right, Uchiha Itachi the heir to the Uchiha clan to my left and Hatake Kakashi, The Copy Nin of Konoha to his left. Thank you for inviting us to Suna Lord Fourth Kazekage.”

Each Konoha nin rose and bowed formally to the Kazekage and his family.

Sakura had been studying Kakashi Hatake while Hyate had been giving them their introductions, ‘So, that’s the son of the White Fang, who killed Sasori’s parents’, interesting. She wondered why he had his headband pulled over his left eye.

Her eyes moved to the other side of Hayate. The boy with the dark eyes was still watching her. She gave him a hard stare which only seemed to amuse him. ‘What’s his problem’, Sakura thought darkly as she looked him over. He was small, thin and lanky. His hair was dark like his eyes and his movements were graceful.’Uchiha’, the name was familiar...she had read something about the Uchiha clan before…

Gaara tugged on her sleeve and she turned her head to see him frowning at her.

“What is it Gaara Kun?” She asked him quietly.

“Why are you staring at that boy?” Gaara asked her in a whisper.

Sakura felt Sasori stiffen in his seat at her side. Most wouldn’t even have noticed but she knew Sasori well enough to notice the slight movement. Her eyes darted back to the boy across the table from her, he had noticed as well. Interesting.

“I’m not staring.” She said defensively to Gaara who merely sniffed at her answer and continued to glare at her.

Conversation remained light as the dishes were served and they began to eat. Sakura noticed the salted beef tongue was placed beside Gaara and that the sweet potatoes were placed close to her. She reached out to take a spoonful from the plate when a hand shot out before hers and grabbed the spoon. Sakura looked up into the dark eyes of Itachi Uchiha, who scooped up a large spoonful and extended it to her politely.

Sakura smiled falsely sweet, and said a thank you from between her teeth as he placed the scoopful on her plate that she held out for him.

“It is my pleasure, Princess.” The Uchiha said graciously in a very nice cultured voice.

His voice had been a surprise to Sakura, she hadn’t been expecting such a smoothness to it, or such a well bred lit to his tone.

Sakura looked up at Sasori who had shifted yet again in his seat and was watching the Uchiha, almost as closely as Gaara now.

“I was not aware you had a second Daughter Kazekage Sama. Allow me to congratulate you on behalf of the Leaf. She appears to be the same age as your other youngest.” Hatake said casually.

“She was adopted but she is my daughter, just as Temari is.” Rasa smiled down at Sakura who looked blankly back at him.

“She favors my brother’s attention however, she is his apprentice.” Rasa waved his hand at his brother.

“Really, I was not aware you had such a young apprentice Sasori Sama.” Hatake’s eye traveled over Sakura with interest.

“Were you aware I had an apprentice at all?” Sasori didn’t like small talk, much less talk about his apprentice.

Sakura smirked into her juice cup.

“Are you teaching her puppetry?” Hatake ignored the sarcastic question, his voice ever calm, polite and interested.

“Among other things.” Sasori picked up his tea and sipped lightly.

“It is nice to see the Suna royal family is growing, we look forward to getting to know you better while we are here with you Sakura Hime.” Hayate said nicely, smiling at the young girl.

“I’m afraid my training schedule allows little time for frivolity Gekko San.” Sakura said loudly, clearly and with such an unusual confidence not normally found in most eight year olds that Hayate blinked, then laughed.

“Perhaps I could train with you then, and get to know you at the same time.” The soft aristocratic voice of Itachi Uchiha interrupted anything Hayate could have said in return.

“No.” Gaara and Sasori both said at the same time.

Rasa laughed, “Sasori, it is just training, not a spar, why not let the children train together, you may oversee them if you like to ensure she doesn’t kill him.” 

“Kill him?” Tenzo choked on his sip of tea he had just taken.

“Yes.” Sasori did not like where this conversation was going.

Sakura gripped Gaara’s hand under the table to calm him, she could feel how tense he was getting by the chakra that seemed to be pulsating through his arms and legs.

“Sasori, Gaara and Sakura are a special team. They specialize in village extermination.” Rasa picked up a pickled chunk of cabbage and chewed it slowly while his statement sunk into the visiting Konoha nin.

“How old are they, they’re just children.” Kakashi said, his voice calm but it was clear he didn’t approve.

Sakura bristled a bit at his question, it was as though he were questioning her skills and capabilities. She wasn’t weak…

“They are eight but their skill level far exceeds their age, much like the Uchiha there.” Rasa bragged.

Sasori did not like this. He had not wanted to come to this ridiculous dinner, he had told Rasa that any interest in either himself or Sakura was to be derailed, side stepped or flat out ignored and here he was promoting it, bragging about her skills and raising even more interest in his student. What the hell was the man up to…

“Enough, this isn’t a pissing contest.” Sasori said abruptly.

Tenzo snorted but was immediately silenced with a look from Kakashi.

“This is a good opportunity to remind ourselves that each Hidden Village trains their elite in different ways and that we must respect those ways and work together for a more peaceful world for all of us.” Hayate smiled at Sasori, who almost rolled his eyes at the man.

“Well said.” Rasa was a bit more successful and more convincing in his manners than Sasori who clearly just couldn’t be bothered.

‘What a load of shit, those words didn’t mean a damn thing’, Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head, earning her a mouth twitch from Sasori who had noticed her reaction and found it amusing.

Conversation remained neutral after that, each picking at their food while the others talked of nothing. Temari didn’t speak at all and Kankuro said half a sentence that everyone but Temari ignored. Sasori responded to any questions or statements thrown his way with a nod, a smirk or a grunt.

No more words were spoken to Sakura or Gaara, but the Konoha nins eyes kept returning to their little faces throughout the dinner with interest clear in their eyes.

“I don’t like the way he was looking at you and neither did Shukaku.” Gaara said smugly as if that settled everything.

“He wasn’t looking at me anymore than he was looking at you.” Sakura knew it wasn’t exactly true but she didn’t like how Gaara had pounced on her over something that wasn’t even her fault the minute the door to their room shut.

“Sasori Sama noticed too.” He said just as smugly as when he had told her Shukaku agreed with him.

Sakura fell onto their bed and groaned into her pillow. Rolling over she peeked at Gaara from underneath her arm. He was still frowning at her. She groaned again and rolled over again falling just shy of the end of the bed.

Gaara crawled up onto their bed and sat beside her. “So?” He demanded.

“So, what?” She asked, her voice muffled by their bedding.

“What are you going to do about it?” He demanded losing patience with her.

“What is there that needs me to do something about?” she asked him tired of this conversation and wanted it to end as quickly as possible.

“Well, you could wear your regular shinobi gear.” Gaara plucked one of her decorated hair pins out of her hair and threw it into the wall where it stuck fast, the little jeweled ornament twinkling at them.

“I didn’t do my own hair and you know that I would rather have worn my shinobi gear Gaara.” She gave him an exasperated look.

“Shukaku says that…” He was cut off by Sakura throwing a pillow at him and then jumping on top of him trying to suffocate him with the pillow.

“I don’t care what the racoon says, he has been too opinionated for my taste since the last full moon. I’m not going to stop brushing my teeth in the bed room and I’m not going to be blamed for my hair or what I was forced to wear tonight besides...Sasori Kun liked my kimono dress and to be honest I kinda like it too but I think I’m going to wear pants under it next time so there!” She pressed down on the pillow and he began to choke.

“Sakura stop.” He complained.

“No, you deserve this.” She growled and pressed the pillow into his face more.

“Sakura I can’t breathe.” He complained more loudly.

“Gaara, we’ve been through this, if you can talk, you can breathe.” She leaned into the pillow more and lowered her head down beside it.

“Anything else to say?” She asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Gaara?” She slowly lifted the pillow and peeked at his face.

His tongue was hanging dramatically out of his mouth and his eyes were crossed.

“Idiot.” She huffed and hit him with her pillow.

“I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now because I’m dead.” He said looking up at her, then laying his head back down and stuck his tongue back out of his mouth and crossed his eyes.

“Ass.” She laughed and hit him again with the pillow only harder this time and squealed when he jumped up and tackled her, ripping the pillow from her hands and hitting her in the head with it repeatedly until they fell back onto their bed breathing hard and laughing.

“Sakura.” Gaara’s voice came to her later that night after they had laid down for bed.

“Hum?” She made a noise in response.

“Do you really want to be a medic nin?” 

“I want to learn medical jutsu, I don’t want to be a medic nin. It is, however, useful. We aren’t immortal, we can’t just put ourselves back together like one of our puppets...it is a good idea. I don’t understand why Sasori Kun is so against it.” She said.

“I don’t know why he is against it but I know that the only place to learn real medical jutsu is in Konoha. They say the Legendary Sannin Lady Tsunade returned to the Leaf, she’s the best healer in the world.” Gaara said.

“I wonder if I could go there, and learn from her.” Sakura said out loud but more to herself.

“Sasori would never let you.” Gaara said. He wouldn’t let her either.

“What if it was just short term. I learn really fast, if I could just get some more scrolls on it, maybe I could even teach myself.” She was getting excited just thinking of it.

Gaara groaned, he hated it when she got like this, she wouldn’t leave it alone he knew. She was going to find a way to get what she wanted...it was only a matter of time.


	16. Chapter 16

“You go. I’ll meet you there soon.” Gaara turned down the street to the left toward the market and left Sakura to go right, toward their training ground.

Sakura took her time as she walked, enjoying the crisp February morning air. She closed her eyes as she walked sending her chakra out into the ground. She knew the way to the training grounds blindfolded but there had been a storm last night and there were some old buildings in this unoccupied part of Suna. Sometimes, in particularly brutal sandstorms, the old walls of the buildings would fall over, so she had to be careful.

As Sakura neared her destination she felt his faint chakra signature. He was following her at a distance. How annoying. 

She smiled as she felt Gaara’s familiar chakra in the market at the sticky bun stand, her favorite. Sasori was in his cave no doubt, she couldn’t feel him very well, only that he was somewhere right outside of Suna. She had felt him leave his room earlier that morning, he had woken her up to give her two scrolls.

Her hand dropped to her pouch, she had brought them with her. No doubt he had given them to her for her to read and then train with them this morning.

Sakura looked around their private training area and noted several walls of two of the older buildings had fallen in last night’s storm and some of their larger cement support beams had fallen over their field. 

If he was following her to learn more about her she might as well give him something to see. She infused her hands with chakra, lifted the support beams and threw them to the side of the field.

Her tail dropped down from one of the walls, officially making his presence known.

“I hope you weren’t trying to hide your presence because if you were, you suck at it.” She said with her hand on her hip turning to face him.

“You should leave, Gaara will be here soon, he won’t want you here.” She turned away from him, dismissing him.

“How do you know how to use your chakra to increase your strength?” He asked her curiously.

“I figured it out by accident. You need to leave.” She shooed him away with her hands but he made no move to fo.

“I thought you might have learned from Senju Tsunade, she is known for her monstrous strength.” He turned and started to walk away.

“Tsunade the Legendary Sannin?” Sakura asked, interested.

Itachi turned back toward the girl, he had her full attention now...interesting. “Yes.”

“The healer right, the medic nin?” Sakura took a step closer to Itachi in her excitement.

“That’s her.” Itachi nodded.

Sakura bit her bottom lip. She wanted to ask him more about the famous kunoichi but she felt Gaara getting closer and closer.

Itachi knew she wanted him to leave before the young Prince appeared, he could see her turmoil, between shooing him away and wanting to learn more about the Legendary Sannin.

“Does she...take students? Do you know?” Sakura asked quickly.

Itachi looked at her, cocked his head to the side, “You want to learn medical jutsu?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Very much.”

“She has only taken on one student that I am aware of, her assistant, her name is Shizune.” Itachi told her.

“Hum.” Sakura’s mind was working fast, there had to be a way for her to learn from the woman. If only Sasori Kun and Gaara Kun would let her go to Konoha.

“Since our villages have an alliance, I am sure she would consider taking you on as a student, being the Princess of the Suna royal family will earn you credit with our elders, but you would have to move to Konoha.” Itachi said. 

He doubted very much that her current teacher would let her move to Konoha, much less the young lord. They both seemed particularly attached to the girl.

“That’s the problem, I can’t.” She said, clearly disappointed.

Itachi nodded once then twice. His dark eyes met hers in full understanding. “I’ll go.” ...and he disappeared in a murder of crows.

Sakura looked around the field, left then right. “Uchiha of the Sharingan.”

She made the hand signs Sasori had taught her, “Release.”

The air shimmered around her…’When the hell did he cast a genjutsu over me’, Sakura smirked,...he was good, had he even really been there at all. It was then she realized, she couldn’t sense him...anywhere in the village.

“Okay, so maybe you can hide your chakra better than I thought.” She realized then that the mistake had been hers, not his and she wasn’t sure she liked that feeling very much.

“Sakura?” Gaara’s voice startled her out of her thoughts. She hadn’t even realized he was standing beside her. A dangerous thing for a kunoichi. Damn Uchiha’s.

“Sorry Gaara. Are those sticky buns?” She smiled at him and tried to take the bag from him.

He lifted the bag in the air playfully moving it away from her as she leapt and jumped trying to get the bag from him.

“She wants to learn medical jutsu?” Kakashi asked Itachi to make sure he had heard the boy correctly.

“Hn.”

Kakashi rubbed his chin. There was something about the girl, something familiar that he couldn’t quite place his finger on. Call it a hunch but he had felt like he had seen her before. He shrugged it off. If it was important, it would come to him eventually.

He turned back to Itachi who was looking out the window of their guest quarters. “She knew you had cast a genjutsu over her?”

“After I left, she realized her mistake, yes.” Itachi replied passively.

“She has Tsunade’s monstrous strength as well.” Itachi added that last bit so casually Kakashi’s mouth quirked...the little prodigy was impressed with the girl.

“The Kazekage said she was adopted. I wonder if they know who her parents were?” Kakashi mumbled to himself.

“We could always just ask.” Itachi’s dark eyes focused back onto Kakashi’s grey one.

“We could.” Kakashi smiled and nodded his head.

Sakura pulled the two scrolls Sasori Kun had given her and laid them out on the sand before her and Gaara.

“Medical jutsu scrolls? Where did he get these?” Gaara had no idea his Uncle was in possession of such things.

“Sakura, did he say where he had gotten these from?” Gaara asked her looking up from the scroll closest to him.

“No.” She was looking down at the scrolls in front of them but she wasn’t reading them.

Gaara watched as her bottom lip trembled.

“Sakura?” He placed a hand over hers linking thier fingers together.

Sakura smiled, ‘Sasori Kun, you really do care’...she suppressed the annoying and pointless urge to cry. She was touched. Sasori had never been one for words of affection, he didn’t hug or touch you for reassurance, she knew he cared for her...but this, this was the first time he had done something so...selfless for her.

This one action from him meant more than a thousand hugs and Sakura was grateful.

“Will you read with me Gaara?” She bent over the first scroll.

“Of course.” Gaara smiled at his best friend, happy that she was happy. Happy that Sasori had done this for her, for the weighty gesture was not lost on Gaara who was well aware of his Uncle’s shortcomings, some of them were his own.

Sakura and Gaara read the scrolls through twice before Sakura laid out flat on her back in the sand and sighed.

“This kind of jutsu, it is simple in theory but I can tell, it is going to be much more difficult to learn than I had thought.” She mumbled into her arm that she had draped over her eyes to shield them from the Suna sun.

“You already know how to use your perfect chakra control.” Gaara pointed to the part in the scroll that said if one did not maintain perfect chakra control they would not be an effective healer, and could do more damage than good to a patient.

“Yes but Gaara.” Sakura sat up and pulled the first scroll over to her, “It also says that a medic nins chakra reserves must remain at full capacity at all times.”

She flopped back onto the sand in defeat.

“It’s impossible, I can’t have my chakra reserves at full when I’m in battle, maybe Sasori Sama is right, maybe this was a bad idea.” She rolled over and set her cheek on her arm and closed her eyes.

“No, it isn’t. You just need to do what you always do, Sakura. Read it, try it and then if it doesn’t work, find a way that is just yours, and make it work.” He laid down beside her.

“Like how you’re the best sensor in the village now, because you didn’t give up, you found your own way to do things. I don’t see how this is any different.” Gaara said as he pet her head.

‘The best sensor in the village who can’t find Itachi Uchiha’s chakra signature’, she grumbled.

“I need to build up my chakra reserves.” She rolled over in the sand and peeked up at Gaara.

“I’ll train with you, like always.” He smiled at her.

Sakura watched as his smile stayed on his face as he looked at her. It made her smile to see him so happy. When they had first started their missions together, they had both smiled less. When the Kazekage had started them on their solo missions, there had been a time where they had stopped smiling all together, but eventually they had found their way back to one another, and had started smiling again.

The war was over. Sasori was home more. Gaara and her were getting stronger and the alliance with the Leaf would be stronger than ever once the negotiations were finalized. They had much to smile over it seemed.

“Now is a time of peace, but peace is fleeting Sasori Kun warned me. We need to keep training, we need to keep getting stronger. Especially you Gaara, you will be Kazekage one day.” She took a deep breath.

He would be Kazekage, his future was already set. What would she be?

Sasori tapped his finger against the side of the table and watched with very little interest as the man screamed a high pitched piercing scream. He had hung him by his arms and was draining him of his blood. Sasori usually left his cave until they were done screaming but he found himself deep in thought and couldn’t quite shake the feeling there was something more he should be doing for his student.

Pulling a chair up to his table he sat with his elbows on the wood, his hands propped up against his cheeks as he slumped over thinking.

She wanted to be a medic nin, he couldn’t hold back the grimace. He scoffed. What a waste. He moaned. He leaned his head more heavily to one side and traced little patterns into the wood of the table following the grain as he let his thoughts focus.

She wanted to learn how to heal, she hadn’t said she wanted to be a medic nin. He knew how much she liked to fight, liked to kill, she loved the rush, needed the power it gave her, to chase that feeling...it made her feel alive. He understood.

He also understood she was getting older. Soon, it wouldn’t be enough for her. He wouldn’t be enough for her. His fists clenched at the thought.

At the age of eighteen Sasori understood that need, that wanting to see how far you could go, he understood his student. He also knew there were things holding her here that he hadn’t had though. Him, Gaara...even Temari and that idiot Kankuro.

She was eight years old...when, he asked himself, when had he started thinking of leaving, thinking Suna wasn’t enough for him. When had the desire to rid himself of his shackles begun, what age...ten. Circumstances were different though, he wanted to believe that...but were they?

“Of course they are.” He scoffed at his weakness.

He had hidden her from the shinobi world as long as he could, accepting only missions for the two of them, or three of them. Rasa wasn’t the only problem, he was just the problem closest to home. 

He let out a long strangled sigh and stood up. The screaming had stopped. He would clean and sterilize his new casing then go back to the village and check on her progress. No doubt the little shit had already mastered healing jutsu and would be demanding something even more impossible from him. He smiled…

Gaara sat beside Sakura in the sitting room between their room and Sasori’s as she tried yet again to make a chakra scalpel. He watched as her chakra glowed green and formed into a pointed blade at the end of her pointer finger, then disappeared, flickering briefly.

Sakura growled, took a deep breath and tried again.

“Maybe if you visualize it like you did when you first started learning how to use your chakra strings.” Gaara suggested.

Sakura glared at him and he slumped over in his seat and looked the other way to avoid her wraith. It seemed the older they got the shorter her fuse got.

“I need a fish.” Sakura stood up abruptly.

“If I can’t do the chakra scalpel I want to try the next step. I want to try to revive a fish.” She walked out of the sitting room and headed for the market, Gaara following close behind.

Gaara sat beside Sakura as she drew the seal from the scroll on a piece of parchment and placed her fish in the middle. She looked at him and he smiled his, encouragement hoping she wouldn’t get frustrated and hit him with the fish if this step frustrated her as much as the first one had.

She bent her pink head and infused her chakra into the fish, focusing on just the right amount and trying to maintain the perfect level of infusion and distribution. The scroll had said there must be an equal amount of chakra placed over the entire surface area that the medic was attempting to heal. In this case, the essential vitals of the fish, one palm’s worth of focused and evenly distributed chakra...easy in theory like she had said...but much more difficult in application.

Sakura could feel the pulsation of her chakra in the fish, could feel the pull of the tendril in her heart, focused as she was on the flicking life force from the fish. She could almost see the energy moving behind her eyes, if she could just push a little more, spread it out like honey over toast and...she gasped as a small pain struck her behind her eyes, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to the ground.

Gaara dropped to the floor calling out her name, she lay limp in his arms.

‘Hospital boy, get her to the hospital’, Shukaku’s voice came to him loud and urgent in his head.

Gaara picked Sakura up and disappeared in a whirl of sand, appearing at the front desk of the hospital where all hell broke loose at the sight of the young lord and the youngest Princess in his arms.

Sasori knew something had happened when he saw a dead fish on a scroll, the two healing scrolls he had given Sakura that morning laid out on the floor of his sitting room and no students in sight. Sakura never left messes, not even when she was four and it had been expected, and never training scrolls, she kept them particularly safe.

Sasori stood for a moment in the room, ah, the hospital...and Gaara was with her, of course he was. Sasori walked to the hospital to find not only Gaara but the Leaf shinobi called Tenzo and the Uchiha there as well.

Tenzo and Itachi bowed to Sasori as he approached the hospital room that contained Sakura’s faint chakra signature and that of his Nephew’s.

“Our apologies Sasori Sama, the young lord would not allow us to visit the Princess but we wished to give her these, they will help with her chakra exhaustion.” The Uchiha presented him with a small silk bag with both hands.

Sasori took the bag one handed and opened it. “Soldier pills.”

Tenzo nodded while Itachi blinked.

“I will have Gaara thank you.” Sasori pushed the door open and walked into the door without another word, pushing Gaara out into the hallway a moment later.

Gaara had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at the two Konoha nin suspiciously. 

“We did not wish to intrude, we were worried for the Princesses health.” Tenzo apologized to the boy.

Gaara stared at him, his gaze fixed and menacing.

“The soldier pills we gave Sasori Sama will help her regain her chakra more quickly and safely.” Itachi added.

Gaara growled at the other boy, his eyes locking on him instead of Tenzo.

“We’ll leave her to her rest, please let us know if there is anything we can do for her.” Tenzo bowed and Itachi followed suit.

Gaara watched them walk around the corner and disappear. He didn’t like that they had shown up only minutes after he had brought her to the hospital...it meant they had been watching them, either in their sitting room or the manse. Shukaku didn’t like it either.

There was something missing, something he couldn’t see. Why would the Leaf be interested in Sakura, as far as they knew she wasn’t anyone special, not to warrant this kind of effort or curiosity. Yes, she was a young elite killer but so was he, so was Sasori and they hadn’t expressed the same interest in either of them.

“You were training too hard.” Sasori stood beside Sakura’s bedside.

“I’m sorry Sasori Kun.” There were little lines in her youthful face. He didn’t like seeing them there.

“Why did you push yourself so hard, you know the dangers of chakra depletion.” He scolded her.

“I was so close, Sasori Kun. I could feel the fish start to...come back.” 

Sasori frowned, it was taking too much effort for her to speak, she really had pushed herself too far this time. He was angry.

“You will be punished for your stupidity.” He left the room without looking at her again and closed the door behind him.

Sasori pulled one of the soldier pills from the silk bag the Uchiha had given him and smashed it into his mortar and pestle. He swirled his pinky finger into the mass and wrapped his chakra around the individual grains analyzing its contents. He frowned. This was different from the soldier pills they had in Suna.

Sasori began the painstaking process of pulling apart the individual ingredients from the crushed pill and made a list. Ten minutes later he sat back and looked the list over. It was ingenious, he was loath to admit it. He took the small pouch of pills and walked back to the hospital to find Gaara sitting beside Sakura’s hospital bed stroking her hair, her eyes closed.

“Leave boy.” Sasori commanded and moved farther into the room.

“I’ll stay.” Gaara said calmly, politely, but firmly.

“I told you to leave.” Sasori locked eyes with the boy, since when did he become so impudent with him?

“I’m not leaving Uncle.” Gaara met Sasori’s eyes and held his ground.

Sasori’s hand rose and chakra strings sprung from his fingertips.

“Gaara Kun.” Sakura interrupted them.

“Could you please go back to the manse and bring me the healing scrolls?” She asked, her eyes open taking in the two redheads before her.

Gaara looked from his Uncle to Sakura and nodded once then left in a flurry of sand.

“Your effort was unnecessary Sakura.” Sasori looked down at the girl.

“Was it?” Sakura smirked.

"Eat this.” He extended his hand to her, ignoring her snark, he had had enough of brats today.

“Soldier pills?” She took them from his hand and popped them into her mouth and chewed.

“These are different from your usual pills Sasori Kun.” She swallowed the pulverized pills between her teeth.

“They were from the Leaf shinobi, the Uchiha and the man named Tenzo.” Sasori said, watching her. 

He placed two fingers at the base of her neck and pressed a little of his chakra into her skin, he could feel her chakra building up a little at a time...she had just now taken the pills. The Suna soldier pills would have taken at least an hour to take effect.

“Wow.” Sakura was amazed, she could feel her chakra returning to her faster, stronger. She flexed her fingers and shot her chakra strings out across the room.

“Sasori Kun.” She looked up at him.

“I have already diagnosed and analyzed their contents. We will leave as soon as the alliance is finalized to forage in the Land of Tea, there are a few ingredients we do not typically keep in stock that are needed to reproduce these chakra replenishment pills.” Sasori set one pill on the nightstand by her bed. He knew she would want to analyze it herself.


	17. Chapter 17

Sakura stood in between Gaara and Sasori as they watched the Leaf shinobi walk over the first dune into the desert, back to Konoha. The new alliance had been completed to the satisfaction of both parties with the added clause of a Genin exchange program to promote further goodwill between the villages. As such, one Jounin instructor from a specialized field would transfer to the allied village for a year to teach an excelled course to Genin selected by the village’s kages.

Sakura knew Sasori had something to do with these amendments to their alliance. He had visited her the following morning discharging her from her room into Gaara’s care with strict instructions to ‘Not leave their room’, to ensure all of her chakra was restored to full before they left for the Land of Tea on their foraging trip. He had left immediately afterward and had gone straight to the Kazekage’s office, where he was in a meeting with the Leaf shinobi.

He had appeared in their room a mere thirty minutes later telling them of the changes and letting them know that night would be the Leaf’s last night before they went back and that dinner was mandatory.

Dinner had been enlightening to say the least. Sakura had listened while the Team Leader of the Konoha shinobi had told them he was looking forward to the exchange of both students and instructors. He had asked Sakura what kind of instructor she thought would be the most beneficial to Suna and she told him enthusiastically that a medic nin would be the most beneficial by far.

When Hayate reminded her that a medic team would be coming to Suna as part of the original agreement she explained that an instructor was preferable, and preferably the one who had taught the medic team that would be coming. Kakashi had smiled at her comment, while Itachi and Tenzo merely blinked at her.

When Itachi suggested Sakura be the student sent on the exchange between the two villages Gaara’s sand had risen up around him and Sasori had released a little of his killing intent much to Rasa’s annoyance. Itachi either didn’t care or didn’t notice because he only had eyes for Sakura and her reaction. She however seemed like the only person at the table that hadn’t reacted, which was a reaction in itself as far as Itachi was concerned.

By the time dessert came, everyone was back to their grumpy, stoic or passive selves and ate their flavored ice in silence. Gaara grabbed Sakura’s hand and nearly dragged her out of the dinning hall when her spoon touched her empty bowl. She hadn’t seen the Konoha nin until the next morning at the gates to Suna.

Sakura turned to Sasori on their walk back to the manse after the Konoha nin had left, “Who will be going to Konoha from Suna for the student exchange Sasori Kun?”

“Not you.” He said and started to walk faster toward the manse, “Come, we have much to do, we will be spending the day in my workroom.”

Gaara sulked a bit. Sasori never let Gaara go to his work room with them. It didn’t bother him as much now as it used to, he used to worry that they wouldn’t come back but they always did and over time he got used to their impromptu trips to his workroom. Gaara had asked Sakura a few times where Sasori’s workroom was, because no one in Suna knew where Sasori went when he left the village sometimes, to go to his mysterious ‘workroom’, but she refused to tell him. 

She told him that she wasn’t allowed to tell him. He understood, but he was still very curious because he could never sense her chakra when she left with Sasori on those trips. Their chakra would cut off a mile out of Suna lost in the sand.

Gaara knew his father had sent Anbu after his brother more than a few times trying to find the mysterious workroom, but they too had failed to locate him, them, or the room. Gaara was determined to find it one day, he was sure treasures beyond his wildest dreams lay in his Uncle’s workroom. Sakura had told him that theory wasn’t true but he was sure she was fibbing to protect Sasori.

He hated that. Their bond. Gaara was getting tired of Sasori showing up from a mission and whisking Sakura away for a day at a time, two days at a time, and now with their foraging trip to the Land of Tea planned, she would be gone for over a week, leaving him alone in Suna without her.

“Sasori Kun, when will the Konoha Jounin get here?” Sakura asked, wondering if Hayate would take her suggestion and ask the Hokage to send a medic nin that she could ask Sasori to let her learn from.

“Soon.” He said.

“In the next few months?” She prodded.

“Perhaps.” He responded.

Sakura grit her teeth. He was still mad at her, she could tell. He had yet to tell her what her punishment was going to be. She wouldn’t be the one to remind him of it though.

Why? Why was he so against her becoming a medic nin, or learning how to use medical jutsu? She didn’t want to be a medic nin full time, she wanted it to protect him, to protect Gaara, to help them if they needed it. There had been times, warranted not many, but there had been a few times it would have been very convenient for one of them to be a medic.

Sakura liked visiting the safe houses with Sasori. He was always much more relaxed in his safe houses and thus more attentive to her. She also felt safer and more relaxed, most likely because he was. 

Sasori was just...easier to talk to, when he was in what he considered his own place. He had mentioned to her before that they would not live in the Kazekage manse forever, that a time would come when they would leave the manse for a home of their own.

She had asked if Gaara would be coming with them and he had changed the subject. She wasn’t a fool and neither was he, they both knew that wherever she was...Gaara would want to be as well. Sakura ran her hand along the wall of the now very familiar cave as Sasori shut the door behind them and made the protection seals. 

He had taught her the protection seals that last time they had been to this cave and he had told her she could come there whenever she liked, but that she was not allowed to bring anyone with her, not even Gaara.

Sakura had asked him about his seals then, how they worked, why he cast three, always three at a time, one with each hand simultaneously and then the third with both hands and a drop of his blood. He explained that way only they could enter and exit without dying. 

He had refused to go into the topic further when she asked him how someone would die if they weren't either one of them. She also wondered how he had gotten her blood, but he refused to speak more on the topic, only adding there was a chakra concealing seal a mile outside the gates of Suna to mask their movements as well.

Sakura had to admire the man, he was methodical, everything he did had a reason and just the right amount of energy put forth to complete the task, there was nothing wasted, nothing left wanting...he truly was a prodigy, but not in the same sense that others were...he was one of a kind. The older Sakura got, the more she realized what a complicated and multi layered man her mentor really was.

“I have already drained the blood from our new project and cured it’s hide. Today you will be oiling the insides and sealing the chakra channels into the joints and tissues I have in this scroll.” Sasori handed her a storage scroll.

“When you’re done we will fuse the perforated tissues back together according to this diagram.” He unfurled a scroll with his hand written notes, precise and neat just like his personality. 

Sakura nodded.

“Begin.” He walked to the back room, leaving her to complete the tasks he had given her without his supervision.

Several hours later Sakura turned to find him in the doorway that led to his back room watching her.

“You’re doing well Sakura.” He said softly, turned and walked back into his back room leaving her alone once again.

‘Yes’, she thought, she liked it when they visited the safehouses together, it wasn’t necessary, but she wasn’t too hardened yet to admit, she enjoyed his praise. Praise from a man as skilled and as dangerous as Sasori, was valuable. Praise from Sasori, being who he was, how he was...was priceless to her.

They spent several more hours fusing the tissue together with their combined chakra. The diagram he had drawn was like none she had seen him design before and she voiced her appreciation for it verbally.

Sasori smiled as they worked, pleased she both understood his reasoning for the change in his routine design and at her appreciation for the changes. She was truly his apprentice in every way.

When they had finished their final task for the day, Sasori hung the sealed pre-stages of their new puppet on the wall with the other three puppets in various stages of completion.

“We will return after our foraging trip into the Land of Tea. I have arranged for us to leave tomorrow at dawn in order to be back within a week of the next full moon.” 

It was more than enough time for them to get the herbs they needed and for him to have a little talk with her about The Village Hidden in the Leaves, his plans for her future and her relationship with Gaara.

She had a wild streak in her, something he was not accustomed to and did not share the need with her to exercise as she seemed to require. He wanted his desires and expectations for her clearly outlined, he knew by doing that, she would conform and adhere to his plan much more easily than if he kept her in the dark. When Sakura was kept in the dark, she had a tendency to bite first and soothe later.

He had been fairly lenient with her on those grounds up until now, but with the Leaf’s obvious interest in her...it was time he told her who she really was. He only hoped it wasn’t going to backfire on him.

Sasori and Sakura left his cave shortly before dinner, arriving to a frantic Gaara who seemed more than slightly annoyed they had been gone for the entire day.

“Why are you so upset? Gaara Kun, Sasori Kun and I go out for days at a time sometimes and it isn’t close to the full moon yet.” Sakura was a little annoyed at his constant presence over her shoulder since she had returned with Sasori fifteen minutes ago.

“It seems like you are with him all the time, there's not enough time for us anymore. Plus, you’re leaving tomorrow morning now? I thought you would be leaving in a few days for The Land of Tea?” He whined at her and she counted to ten in her head.

“Gaara, “ She started but he hugged her hard.

“Gaara, we’re leaving tomorrow morning to make sure we’re back before the full moon...for you.” She tried to soothe him by running her fingers through his spiky red locks and kissing his kanji.

“You spend more time with my Uncle than you do with me now.” He continued to complain.

Gaara didn’t understand his feelings. Shukaku’s words flooded his head and made it hurt. The tanuki kept demanding she spend less time with his Uncle and more time with him but Gaara didn’t know how to make that happen. He agreed with Shukaku, he wanted her to spend more time with him, but right now it felt like he was only pushing her farther away. He could feel her annoyance rolling off of her in waves.

Sakura watched Gaara’s eyes glaze over and wondered what Shukaku was telling him. It seemed like the tanuki and Gaara argued more and more. She was sure that most of their arguments had something to do with her too.

“Gaara?” Sakura waved her hand in front of his face, he caught it in one of his and his eyes refocused on her once again, his murky teal holding her clear green.

“You okay?” She smiled at him.

Gaara nodded. “I’m sorry Sakura. I know you need to train. It’s just, I don’t like that there is a part of your life...that I’m not a part of.” He admitted his insecurity to her.

“Gaara.” Sakura said his name softly.

“Just because you’re not with me here.” She squeezed his hand.

“Doesn’t mean you’re not with me in here.” She placed his hand over her beating heart and closed her eyes.

Gaara watched her for a moment, her lips were slightly parted, her breathing calm, he could feel the beating of her heart beneath his palm. He closed his eyes. Thump thump. Thump thump.

He opened his eyes To see her smiling at him. Her eyes sparkled and he felt like an idiot.

“I’m sorry Sakura.” 

“It’s okay. I understand.” She said pulling him out of their room into the sitting room where their dinner had been set out for them.

Sakura let Gaara hold her as they fell asleep that night. He had insisted. She lay on her side facing the window, her back to his chest. His right arm was under her head, his left arm wrapped around her middle holding her to his body. She couldn’t remember how many times they had fallen asleep like this when they were younger. Sometimes they would be so wrapped up in one another’s arms and legs, she hadn’t known where he began and she ended.

They didn’t sleep together every night, not like the first two years they were together, but they slept together more than not, when they were both home from missions. Sometimes Sakura would fall asleep on the couch while reading, but Gaara’s sand would pick her up and lay her in bed beside him. They didn’t always cuddle, but both of them tended to sleep better, when they were together. Gaara didn’t sleep at all without her.

Sasori woke an hour before dawn, set everything they would need for their trip by the door of his sitting room and padded to Sakura and Gaara’s door. He was not pleased by what he found.

The tanuki had surfaced sometime during the night. Gaara’s eyes were a luminous yellow, the defining black crosses clearly outlined by the reflections of the little moonlight that cast it’s way onto their bed. The boy’s head rose from the girl’s neck he had been nuzzling and piercing yellow bore harshly into Sasori’s mellow amber.

“Gaara.” Sasori spoke loudly and aggressively.

The boy didn’t move, but Shukaku’s eyes continued to glow.

“Gaara!” Sasori’s voice rang commandingly throughout the silent room.

Sakura began to wake at the second sounding of Sasori’s voice but the boy’s fang showed through his lips that he had pulled back in a slight snarl. His growls could be heard rumbling around the room, over the bed to land mutely at Sasori’s feet.

“Sakura.” Sasori called Sakura’s name.

Sakura’s eyes opened and she tried to sit up but couldn’t. She turned her head back to look at Gaara and gasped. Gaara began nuzzling her neck again, his fangs grazing the underside of her chin lightly.

“Enough of this.” Sasori threw his chakra strings out pulling Sakura from Gaara’s grasp.

Gaara’s sand rose up around him but Sakura stumbled forward out of Sasori’s now loosened threads and yelled, “Gaara! Control that damn raccoon this instant!”, and stepping into it, slapped him across the face.

Like a switch, his eyes faded from the glowing yellow with the signature black crosses to his natural beautiful teal of the Mediterranean Sea.

“Sa Sakura?” Gaara was confused.

“Did you just slap me?” His hand came up to cup his cheek which was now red from Sakura’s more than accurate strike, to both his face and his ego.

“Shukaku had surfaced. It isn’t even close to a full moon.” She turned to Sasori.

“How is this possible?” She demanded.

“It seems the boy is simply losing control when it comes to you.” Sasori had expected this, it was one of the things he was going to speak to her about on this foraging trip of thiers.

“Gaara? Is this because I’m leaving with Sasori Kun?” She sat down on the bed beside her friend.

“Yes, I mean no but...no. I’m sorry.” Shukaku wouldn’t stop mumbling and he was having a hard time concentrating on what she was saying.

Gaara put his hand to his head, “Shut up.” He muttered.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the boy. It was getting worse than he had thought, he should have separated them a year ago, he had let this go on far too long.

“Remember what I told you boy. Control the beast, as long as you do, you and Sakura can be playmates, friends...family like this.” He waved a hand around the room encompassing their living situation, their shared bed, dresser, bathroom.

“If you fail to control that damned racoon boy. I will take her from you. To protect her.” Sasori’s voice was normal, calm but serious due to the levity of the situation...the circumstances.

“Take her from me?” A voice that was not Gaara’s laughed at Sasori.

“You think you can take my mate from me?” Gaara’s face transformed into a grotesque misshapen distortion of what it should be. 

His eyes glowed that eerie yellow, the black of the cross was back and he lunged for Sasori faster than Sakura had ever seen Gaara move before.

Sakura was pushed back against the wall by Sasori’s chakra strings, moving her out of the way of Gaara’s rampage. The two seconds that it had cost Sasori to protect her cost him dearly. Shukaku’s massive hand shot out from Gaara’s transformed side and pinned Sasori up against the wall of their bedroom.

Sasori’s breath escaped his lungs in a rush and he started to wheeze. He could feel the pain shooting up his chest as the sand squeezed around his rib cage.

“No one is going to take Sakura from me!” Shukaku growled through Gaara’s lips in the Puppet Master’s face.

“Not yours.” Sasori gasped out.

“My responsibility, mine.” Sasori continued to speak.

“You can’t protect her. Weak.” He gasped for air, glaring at the boy.

“So weak!” Sasori started wheezing and choking at the same time.

‘No’, Sakura said to herself, he’s...laughing…

“So weak!” Sasori hissed, flicking two of his fingers out with his right hand he pinned Gaara to the opposite wall, Shukaku’s massive hand notwithstanding.

“How dare you boy.” Sasori wiped a small trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.

“You think because she lets you cuddle her at night, because she calls you ‘friend’ she belongs to you?” Sasori’s eyes sparked with malice.

“You’re naive, you’re weak, you’re no longer useful to me.” He wrapped layer after layer of chakra string around Gaara, effectively binding his arms and legs, picked him up into the air and whipped him against the wall of their bedroom.

Gaara fell to the floor, blood dripping from his head, sliding down through the hairline of his forehead, over his kanji. Sasori released his chakra strings, walked over to the boy and gripped his hair in his hand, pulling him up to his feet.

“She was never yours boy, she was always mine.” He threw Gaara onto their bed, took Sakura by the hand and pulled her out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking of a small time skip of three years but I want to know what you want...so, what will it be?
> 
> Time skip to age eleven, or keep going on the few months to a year at a time kinda format?
> 
> I usually update everyday a few times a day if not at least one chapter, but I'm going to wait until I get a few responses before moving forward, so please leave me a comment with your opinion on this.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...he does have a heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still going to wait on a few more comments, I'm still hopeful to get at least one more response, then I will continue the story.
> 
> This chapter is in response to Hatake20's comment. It was a good idea, but I found it difficult to fit it into one paragraph :) This is the result, that will segway into the next, either time skip or non.

Sasori was furious, but at who, she couldn’t tell. They walked out of the front gates of Suna just as the sun was breaking over the farthest dune. He hadn’t spoken since he had tossed Gaara onto their bed. He hadn’t looked at her since he had grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door and out onto the street below. He hadn’t let go of her hand yet either. Sasori never held her hand...not even when she had been four and had wanted him to.

She assumed he would release her hand when they passed through the gate but he didn’t, if anything he held onto her hand even tighter as they continued to walk across the desert toward the southern border between Wind and Fire. They would take a ship from the most southern point where the borders touched to Tea, and land at the port where Fire and Tea joined.

Travel from Wind was regulated through the ports to The Land of Tea. As members of the alliance, Wind shinobi had to travel into Tea, from Fire, and have their passes stamped by both Fire and Tea. Elite shinobi who were found in Tea without the required stamp could be put to death without a trial or without sending a missive to their native land. 

Sakura doubted anyone would try to attack Sasori Kun, his reputation was bloody and ruthless, his red hair well known and feared throughout the five great nations. He was also in the Bingo book and a particular enemy of both Iwa and Kumo. 

They made it to the border by evening and took a small room at the port’s inn.

Sakura unpacked her essentials as well as Sasori’s and set them on the provided dresser. Per usual Sasori left her in their room to organize their things, buy thier dinner, only to return after she had set their food out with plates and chopsticks.

“Sakura.” Sasori spoke to her for the first time since they had left Suna.

She looked up from her food to meet his eyes. He was hesitant, she could feel his restless chakra in the air and wondered what he was upset about. Perhaps she had been wrong and he was mad at her after all.

She waited for him to speak, setting her chopsticks down at the edge of her plate. He blinked twice and cleared his throat.

“Do you know your mother’s name?” He asked her.

Whatever she had been expecting, she most certainly hadn’t been expecting that question to leave his lips.

“Haruno, like my father’s, like mine.” She answered him. Surely he must know that.

“No, it wasn’t. Your father was...not your real father and...your mother had never been with that man. You were stolen, I do not know who stole you, but you ended up in an orphanage and were...sold, to that man.” Sasori said evenly, controlled and cautiously, he wasn’t about to go into further details with her.

Sakura was obedient for the most part, eager to please, diligent and wise for her age. She was also stubborn, clever, pig headed and wild. All these qualities made her an excellent fearless sort of prodigal student but also a most volatile, unpredictable time bomb.

Green eyes blinked at him repeatedly.

“What did you say?”

Never one to hold back or sugar coat things Sasori continued. “The man you called father was not your real father and he was never married to your mother, in fact, he had never even met your mother, or your real father.” Sasori told her.

Sakura stared at him, her mouth slightly open, “So then, who are my real parents?”

Sasori hesitated. This was a terrible risk on his part. What if...she wanted to leave him after he told her? They were on the border of Fire and Wind, she could find her way to Konoha, he knew it, she was clever, she would be determined...he paused. 

For one of the first times in his life he hesitated and was...scared. He had invested so much time into her education, had shown her so many things that he hadn’t shown anyone, he was worried, in fact he was terrified she would leave him. Was he any better than Gaara?

“Please Sasori Kun.” She saw his hesitation, saw him turning in upon himself.

“This doesn’t change the way I feel about you Sakura.” He said quietly.

Sakura nodded, she thought she understood, he was scared. She had always known she meant a lot to him, no matter what he said to her, no matter how strict or demanding he was of her, she knew it was his way of showing her he cared.

“Tell me.” She said gently.

“Your father is...Namikaze Minato the Fourth Hokage of Konoha and your mother was Uzumaki Kushina the Nine tails jinchuriki who died while giving birth to your younger brother Uzumaki Naruto the current Nine tails jinchuriki.” Sasori said all in one breath.

“And your grandmother is Senju Tsunade, the granddaughter of the First Hokage, MInato’s mother.” He added.

Sasori held his breath and felt ridiculous. He didn’t really care if she wanted to leave him and move to Konoha. He was just upset he had wasted the last four years of his life on her. If he had known her genetic background he would have done things differently, he would have trained her much harder, given her more time and attention, he tried to tell himself, then maybe...he would know if she was going to leave him or not right now.

Sakura was silent, her head was spinning and her mouth seemed like it had lost all of it’s moisture. ‘How odd’, she thought, to lose all the moisture in your mouth when hearing surprising, life altering news such as this. She shook her head to clear it of such a ridiculous thought.

“Are you sure?” She asked, her logical mind telling her it didn’t matter if it wasn’t true, and it couldn’t be true…

“I only recently confirmed it with the Konoha team that was just here. They did not know why I was asking the questions I did but...it was enough for me to be sure. I am sure Sakura.” He let his breath out slowly, breathing back in just as carefully. One of them though, might suspect. No need to burden the girl with hat information just yet though, he told himself.

There was a pain in his heart, that he knew wasn’t from the internal bleeding Gaara had caused him. It hurt somewhere just above where he thought his soul must be.

Sakura rose from her seat on the other side of the table and walked over to stand beside Sasori who blinked at her twice before turning in his seat to face her.

She put her hand over his heart and pressed a light wave of chakra into it. He flinched, only once, then settled back into his normal reserved calm.

“Is this your way of telling me you don’t want me with you anymore?” She asked him quietly, softly, almost an inaudible whisper as her green eyes bore into his amber.

“No.” To his utter horror, his voice was choked with emotion he hadn’t expected himself to feel.

“You still want me as your student, you aren’t sending me away?” She asked her hand still on his heart, her chakra still reading his energy with her own.

“You will always be mine, always be with me.” He said, his eyes dropping to where her hand was on his chest.

“Sasori.” She spoke his name, without title, without ‘Kun’ with it, and his eyes flashed amber and gold.

“You didn’t really think I would want to leave you did you?” She tried to smile at him, but her bottom lip trembled.

Sasori pulled the little girl to him and hugged her tightly. “No.” His voice cracked, they both ignored it.

Sakura wrapped her little arms around his neck and hugged him just as tightly as he held her.

“I love you so much Sasori Kun. I’ve never stopped being thankful for the day I met you on the wall and you saved me.” She whispered into their embrace.

“You saved me that day Sakura, make no mistake.” ...and she had, he had planned on leaving Suna the following year, to be on his own and see just how far he could take his new hobby, but instead he had found her...and she had quickly become so much more important to him than anything in his life had ever been before.

He didn’t tell her he loved her, he didn’t have to, she had felt everything that was in his heart when she had pressed her chakra into his chest. She knew him like no one else did, she was the only one he had ever let so close to his mind, his heart or his soul.

Sasori gave the girl one final squeeze then pushed her away to a proper distance.

“What will happen now, what will this change?” She asked him wise beyond her years yet again.

“Many things, everything.” He said seriously, it wasn’t just a passive way to avoid her question.

Sakura nodded, she understood. Her life was never going to be the same, but she had Sasori, and she had Gaara...and that was all she cared about. It didn’t matter who her parents had been, it didn’t matter that she had a brother, but it did explain a lot. 

She wasn’t just some civilian kid whose father had been a drunk. She was the daughter of the fourth Hokage, The Yellow Flash, and her grandmother was Tsunade Senju the world famous healer and granddaughter to the First Hokage.

“So it really is genetic, but my sand manipulation...where does that come from then?” She asked him confused.

Sasori looked out the window, how could he tell her…

“Minato, your father was the Son of Tsunade Senju and a man named Dan Kato. Dan was the illegitimate son of a Konoha woman I could not find the name of and...the Third Kazekage.” Sasori told her with a straight face.

“My grandfather was the Third Kazekage that you...we...made into a puppet?” She felt sick.

Sasori nodded. His fingers twitched waiting for her to attack him.

“I didn’t know, until two days ago.” He told her in all honesty.

“I had suspected...I checked the Kazekage archives. I matched medical records with your blood that I took from you while you slept. It was a match.” He said.

“I’m…” She sat down on the end of the bed hard.

“You’re a princess twice over, by blood.” He said what she couldn’t

“And I killed your grandfather, and you helped me make him into a puppet.” He added in case that hadn’t been made clear to her.

“My green eyes?” She asked.

“Are from your grandfather Dan, and your pink hair is no doubt from your Uzumaki blood.” He got up and sat down on the bed beside her.

“I’m...I don’t know what to say.” She was in shock, she knew.

“You’re a genetic marvel. This needs to be kept secret. Do you understand? There isn’t a country alive that wouldn’t want you to breed their next generation. You’re a walking jutsu genetic gold mine Sakura, do you understand?”

She had never heard him speak so crass...this was dangerous. As his words started to sink in she realized just how very dangerous her situation was.

“Who knows?” She asked quickly.

“Me, you and possibly Rasa. He will have had the opportunity, access and time to look into your genetic background...like I have.” Sasori didn’t miss the flash of realization in her eyes. ‘And Hatake Kakashi’, he said to himself.

“Yes Sakura, he must die in order to keep your secret. Now, however, is not the time.” He warned her.

“When?” She asked.

“When Gaara is old enough to take his place as Kazekage.” He said.

“Can’t you be Kazekage in his place?” She asked.

“I don’t want to be.” He told her. “I have never been interested in such a pompous ridiculous title.”

“That’s exactly why you are perfect for it Sasori Kun.” She smiled sweetly at him.

Sasori groaned internally...and again...it wasn’t because of his internal bleeding. She was far too clever for her age.

“The days of you pretending you don't care about me are over Sasori Kun.” She grinned at him.

“That is the only reason I haven’t killed you and made you into a puppet yet girl, remember that.” He quipped back.

“You wouldn’t turn me into a puppet Sasori Kun.” She smiled at him.

“Only if you tried to leave me.” He half joked back.

“I’ll never leave you Saori.” She promised.

“I will hold you to that.” He pulled her to him for one more hug before they both stopped pretending they didn’t love one another.

Hatake Kakashi knocked on Namikaze Minato’s door. He had just gotten back to the Leaf and had made his report to the clerk at the tower. Kakashi stuck his hands in his pockets, this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.

The door opened and blue eyes, like his father’s stared at him, a big shit eating grin on the boy’s face, his hands on his hips...like his sister…

“Naruto, where’s your dad kiddo, I have something I need to talk to him about.”

“I don’t know, sec.” The boy turned and yelled over his shoulder, “DDDAAAAAADDDD! KAKASHIII WANT TO TALK TO YOUUUUU!”

Minato’s head popped into sight from around the corner. “Kakashi? What brings you here? Back from Suna? How did it go?” Minato smiled at his friend and former student.

“I need to speak with you, in private.” Kakashi made eyes toward Naruto.

“Come into my office. Naruto, I’ll be out in a minute.” Minato patted his son on his head as they walked past him into his office.

Once they were seated Minato looked at Kakashi expectantly, his hands folded over the top of his desk waiting patiently.

Kakashi fidgeted in his seat. He took a deep breath.

“I found your first born, your daughter.” Kakashi looked his old sensei in the eyes so he would know...this wasn’t a joke.

“She looks just like Tsunade, but with Dan’s green eyes and light pink hair.” Kakashi said gently.

“She’s beautiful...and deadly.” He added.

Minato swallowed hard. “Tell me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know...


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So of course I couldn't move onto a time skip without Minato finding out more right? Right.
> 
> So here you go.
> 
> Next...you know what's next...

“She’s alive.” Minato felt like his lungs had stopped working, he couldn’t breathe.

“She’s alive.” A small smile started at the corner of his lips and began to slowly spread across his face.

“She’s alive and she’s in Suna?” MInato jumped to his feet ready to go to Suna right then and there to get her.

“It’s complicated Minato.” Kakashi jumped up when Minato did in case he needed to tackle the man.

“What do you mean?” Minato asked, the excitement in his eyes sparkling with energy.

‘Kushina,’ he thought…’we’ve found her, Kakashi found her for us!’

“She lives with the Kazekage and his family, and her Sensei is Sasori of the Red Sand.” Kakashi told him.

“They adopted her Minato sensei, she won’t be easy to get back from them and...she’s...not like you or Kushina, she’s...kinda scary.” Kakashi rubbed the back of his head nervously.

“They adopted her?” Minato sat back down in his chair behind his desk.

“She likes it there, she’s happy...she’s one of them.” Kakashi didn’t know how else to say it.

“She doesn’t belong there, she was stolen from us, she belongs here in Konoha.” Minato protested.

Kakashi had found his daughter for him, she was alive, she needed to be with him.

“Minato, even if we could get her without going to war with Suna...which I don’t think is possible because they simply will not give her up, she is a member of the royal family now. She might not come. Like I said she...has formed bonds there.” Kakashi was trying to tell the truth and explain the situation accurately at the same time with as much tact as possible.

“What kind of bonds?” Minato was curious, he wanted to know everything he could about his daughter.

“She is very close to the one tail jinchuriki, the youngest son of the Kazekage, Gaara. Sasori, her teacher, he is very protective of the girl, possessive even. She is...just like him. They are on a three man team, an elite assasination team...that specializes in village eliminations.” Kakashi said that last part with great reluctance.

Minato’s face contorted as if he had been struck. “She’s...what only eight years old now? She’s eliminating villages?”

“Yes.” Kakashi wished he had another answer for the man, his friend, sensei and Hokage, but it was the cold hard truth.

“She’s clever, sensei, and skilled, she’s beautiful.” Kakashi told the blonde.

Minato nodded slowly. He swallowed. “She’s happy there?”

“We were only there for a few days but she did seem happy. They treat her like family, she is well cared for. Sasori is training her and Gaara together personally, and I think, her more privately. He wouldn’t tell us of course but I think he is training her in puppetry. She expressed interest in healing jutsu to Itachi and spoke at length over dinner with Hayate about sending a medic nin for the jounin exchange along with the regular medic team we were originally going to send. It seems as though the Kazekage respects her voice even though she is only eight years old.” Kakashi tried to tell him everything he had seen and noticed.

“She had your sensory abilities and affinity for genjutsu. She broke Itachi’s genjutsu when she noticed it.” Kakashi added.

Minato smiled, “Really?”

Kakashi nodded. “She trains very hard. She trained almost the entire time we were there. She has a very special bond with Gaara, I believe they share a set of rooms that are attached to Sasori’s. It’s like they are their own separate family, within the family.” 

“I see.” Minato considered Kakashi’s words.

“No one knows. I didn’t share my thoughts with the rest of the team. You should know though...I think Sasori might know, he asked me how old Naruto was and if he had any other siblings. I should go, let you be alone.” Kakashi rose from his seat and left with a low bow.

Minato sat in his chair, his hands folded over his lap thinking. He rose from his desk and walked to the wall where several pictures decorated the off white expanse. He stood in front of a picture of Kushina, her tummy ripe with their first born, a girl they had told them.

“A girl with light pink hair and green eyes.” Minato murmured to the photo.

“We’ve found her Kushina, we’ve found our daughter.” He told the picture gently, stroking the sides of the frame lovingly.

“I think, I will accompany the medic team to Suna when they go, as a gesture of goodwill between our villages.” He told the picture of his wife and their child he had only gotten to hold twice before she had been stolen away from them in the night.

One month later Minato ran through the Konoha forest toward Suna with his Anbu guard and the medical team that would be helping Suna with their hospital. Shizune, Tsunade’s personal assistant, had finally agreed to be the Jounin to accompany them to Suna for the exchange. 

He had spent the better part of the last month pleading, bribing, and guilting her into it for reasons only known to him and Kakashi. He wanted his daughter to learn from the best. If he couldn’t convince his mother, which he couldn’t...it had to be Shizune.

Once again Team Ro was heading to Suna, but not as diplomatic guests but as his Anbu guard. Kakashi had mixed feelings about the Hokage accompanying the team of medic nin but he knew there is no way in hell he was going to be able to stop him from seeing his daughter in person. 

They did however have a conversation before they left and Minato had agreed...he was only there to observe for now. Kakashi had made it clear that the girl wanted for nothing, that she had been well taken care of, that they seemed to genuinely care for her and she them.

Minato was not unreasonable. The girl didn’t even know he was her father for kami’s sake. He just wanted to see her, to see for himself she was being well taken care of, that was all.

Sakura sat beside the little water shelf inside Sasori’s Suna safe house. She watched the water cascade gently over her hand then fall down into the little voided pit in the floor at the wall of the cave. This was a nightmare. Her insides were wriggling and cramping in intervals. Why, why was the Hokage coming to Suna. She wasn’t ready for this, she didn’t want this...she didn’t want to meet her real father.

Sasori had told her as soon as he had heard. At least her brother wouldn’t be there with him, she sighed.

Sasori hadn’t been able to confirm Rasa knew her true genetic background yet. At this point it was still conjecture, but Sasori was confident enough to have planned his death out thoroughly. 

She had to act normal, she didn’t want to be the one to give herself away. Sasori would be shamed, disappointed and possibly angry. He had come to her with the truth, he hadn’t lied or kept it from her. She owed this to him. She would keep his secrets, they were also her own now.

Sakura lifted her head as the cave entrance moved to reveal Sasori. He stepped into the cave and closed the door behind him.

She stood to greet him. “Okaeri Sasori Kun.”

“Tadaima.” Sasori’s mouth twitched.

“I made a hot pot.” She waved a small hand to the pot over the fire.

“I see.” He moved to the pot to look inside.

“You have been staying here quite a bit since we returned from Tea. Gaara is worried about you.” Sasori was being very diplomatic today.

“So he says, constantly, so much in fact...it makes me want to avoid him more.” She looked back to the water on the wall of the cave and lifted her hand to it again.

Sasori snorted in amusement. “You’ve been sleeping here almost as much as at home.”

“I am aware.” She said shortly.

Sasori ignored her snark, “As is everyone.”

She turned her head to look at her master, “We are getting older, like you said when we were in Tea. Soon it will not be appropriate for us to sleep in the same bed anymore.” 

“So you’re distancing yourself a little at a time, a wise decision. Our house is ready, as of today. We will be moving in over the next few weeks.” He told her.

“Your old house?” She asked again even though she already knew.

Sasori didn’t respond, he had already told her it had been the house he had grown up in...before his parents had died.

Gaara had been less than pleased when they had returned and told him they were both moving out of the manse and into their own home...and that he wouldn’t be joining them. Shukaku had exploded into existence in a flurry of sand. Sakura had been thrown back nearly a kilometer, Sasori had met the swishing tail of the one tail with a wall of magnetic sand that morphed into a huge beam that came crashing down on Shukaku’s head.

Sakura had raced back to her two men and put a stop to the madness with a chakra infused punch to Shukaku’s face, sending the tanuki reeling across the training field, through the west wall and out into the desert. Gaara had regained control, or Shaku had gone into hiding, either way, Gaara had come limping back, non-existent tail between his legs.

“You’ll have your own room of course, and bathroom. We will have a garden and our own watering system as befitting our station and rank in the village.” Sasori reminded her.

“I’d planned on you taking my parent’s old room. It’s larger for all of your scrolls and books, it walks out into the garden, the bathroom is in the room and…”

“Sasori Kun, I’m excited to be moving.” She reassured him.

Sasori nodded. “I’ll be taking Granny Chiyo’s old room. My old room...can be our home lab for poisons and those ridiculous antidotes you keep insisting on making.” He ended.

Sakura’s eyes were still fixed on the water flowing over her hand.

“Thank you for the kimono Sasori Kun, and the matching pants.” She turned her head to smile at him.

Sasori nodded, dismissing her thanks. He had told her he would get her more of the kimono dresses. She had asked for them to be shorter, he had almost punished her for such a request but paused when she explained she wanted pants to go with them. 

He watched her by the wall. It fit her perfectly, allowed movement to fight, had pockets for poisons, puppet scrolls and other weapons. With her pink hair, she looked like a civilian, her small form was misleading...she was going to be incredibly beautiful when she grew up. 

Sasori swallowed, she was eight and already he had seen the way some of the boys a little older than her looked at her. He growled unconsciously.

He would kill them all.

Sakura sighed heavily and moved from the water to the shelf where they kept bowls and smaller kitchenware. She filled a bowl and set it before Sasori on a raised rock and then filled one for herself. They clasp their hands together and thanked kami for the food and began to eat, in silence. Each lost in their own thoughts, dinner passed slowly. When they had eaten their fill, he asked her if she would be sleeping there or coming back to the manse with him.

“I’ll come back. If we are moving in the next few days, it’s only fair.” She cleaned up while he checked his stores of herbs and moved a few things around in their workroom.

She stood by the entrance of the cave waiting for him. He watched her from the shadows on the door to the back room where she couldn’t see his figure. He would never tell her, he could barely admit it to himself, but he was worried about her first meeting with her father...he only hoped she could keep her emotions in check. 

He had prepared several scenarios and excuses to pull her from the room if he had to, but he hoped he wouldn’t need to use them. It would only cast doubt on already suspicious minds. She was confident, strong and level headed. ‘She’ll do just fine’, he told himself, and walked out of the shadows.

Gaara was in their bed when she walked into their room. He ignored her for the book in his hands. She sighed and walked to their bathroom to draw herself a bath. The hot water and steam rose up around her as she undressed. She pulled the tie from her hair and it fell down her back. There was a small knock on the door as she lowered herself into the tub and she groaned.

“What?” She called out.

“Are you in? Can I come in?” Gaara asked from the other side of the door.

“I’m in the tub, come in.” She called out.

She had used mugwort for the bath salt and it made the water a dark murky sort of green, opaque and hard to see through. She ducked down further into the bath as Gaara opened the door and sat on the floor beside the tub.

“What do you want, I told you last time it isn’t appropriate for you to come in here while I’m bathing anymore.” She frowned at him.

His teal eyes followed a ripple of water from the tap until it hit her knee.

“I can’t see anything, besides, you didn’t say I couldn’t be in the bathroom, but that I couldn’t take a bath with you anymore.” He pointed out as if that made a difference.

“Same thing.” Sakura shot back, but she wasn’t really angry. She knew this must be really hard on him.

“Look, how about three times a week, I will come back and sleep with you okay?” She said.

“Really?” His voice was so hopeful it tugged at her sensibilities.

“Not forever, just until you get more adjusted to the changes okay?” She warned.

“Okay Sakura. Thank you.” He started to lean forward to hug her but she squealed and dove farther down into the water pushing up against the side with her feet so her body didn’t float back up.

“Don’t hug me idiot! I’m naked!” and she threw the closest thing at him, which was a bar of soap.

“Ow.” He grinned at her.

“It didn’t even hit you.,”she said annoyed.

His sand had caught it easily and thrown back at her where it had splashed into the tub.

“Ugh, now there’s sand in my water!” She complained.

“You shouldn’t have thrown things at me!” He teased her and ran out of the room before she could pick up anything else.

Sakura stretched back out into the hot water after he had left. She was really going to miss him, even if it was only three houses over and they could see one another from their windows, it wouldn’t be the same.

That’s how life was though. That’s what Sasori Kun had told her at least. His face had been red as he explained the difference between girls and boys to her on their trip to Tea. She had listened carefully at his description of what boys wanted as they got older and about what he thought girls wanted when they got older.

The speech had ended with him patting her on the head and saying,” But don’t worry, if any boys touch you or come near you, I’ll make them into puppets.”

Sakura hadn’t minded. She had no interest in boys and she had told him so. He had smiled at her, “Not yet, but you will.”

“What about you Sasori Kun, is there anyone you like?” She had asked. She hadn’t recalled ever seeing him speak to a female, much less act like he liked anyone in particular.

“I don’t like boys.” Sasori had deadpanned.

“That’s not what I...you know that’s not what I meant!” She had huffed at him.

He had merely smirked and walked away from her into the river to get their dinner, and hadn’t answered her.

Two days later the Konoha team had arrived, Hokage included. Like before the Royal family was by the gate to greet them, all of them this time because the Hokage was among the guests.

Sakura was in her black kimono top with white trim, matching white pants with black trim and a white and black obi around her waist. Like before she had poisoned hair pins in her hair that had been haphazardly piled on top of her head. Gaara stood beside her in his shinobi gear, but with a maroon suit coat and male apron tied around his waist concealing his pouch.

Sasori was less striking but more striking in his own way. He wore a black uniform to match Sakura, a clear mark of his status in her life, with white trim and a red silk sash covering his puppet scrolls. With amber eyes sparkling in the Suna sunlight Sakura thought he looked rather dashing and blushed at the unfamiliar thought. Gaara stiffened beside her, his eyes widening and narrowing in turn.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything however, they saw them, running over the top of the sand dune, the last dune to Suna, one, then three, then two, then one...fast.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, the medics could run that fast as well? How unusual. The Suna medics were shinobi technically, but only one in five of them could hit a target with a kunai. It seemed these Konoha medics were a different breed. Sakura’s blood thrummed with excitement. She was finally going to get to learn how to be a medic...it was in her blood after all, two generations back.

Sakura saw the blonde head of the Hokage first and took an involuntary step forward. A hand fell on her shoulder. She looked up to find Sasori giving her a warning look. Her eyes wavered but she nodded. She had to control herself.

The Konoha nin slowed as they came within a shorter distance of the gate and approached more leisurely.

Minato Namikaze let his eyes wander over the figure of the little pink haired girl standing in between Sasori of the Red Sand and who must be Gaara the Kazekage youngest as he approached. She had taken a step forward...did she know? Minato’s eyes went to Sasori who was looking down at the girl. A silent message passed between them. ‘They are close’, Minato hadn’t been prepared for the pain that realization had shot through his heart.

“Kazekage, so good of you to receive us.” MInato smiled at Rasa.

“It is my pleasure, please Hokage, let us retire from the sun, you and yours are hot no doubt. Let us get you some refreshments.” Rasa smiled and motioned for the rest to follow the Hokage and himself to the manse.

“Hello Sakura San.” Itachi Uchiha fell into step next to Sakura who was walking directly behind Minato and Rasa.

Gaara growled on the other side of her but Itachi ignored him. Sasori was behind Sakura but ignored the Uchiha in favor of watching the back of Minato’s neck, fully aware of the stares of both the man Tenzo and Hatake Kakashi.

“Uchiha brat.” Sakura bit out at Itachi who laughed at her.

“I see you haven’t changed.” He said playfully.

“Neither have you, just as annoying as ever I see. Not hiding your chakra this time I see.” She refused to look at him even though he continued to watch her.

“I could teach you how to do it, how to eliminate all traces of your chakra. You could be undetectable Sakura.” Itachi offered.

Sakura didn’t respond right away. Could he?

“I will teach her, your efforts are not necessary...or wanted.” Sasori spoke from behind them.

“My apologies Sasori Sama.” Itachi said without breaking his stride.

Gaara snorted.

“Something funny Gaara?” Sakura asked her friend menacingly.

“Nope.” Gaara looked the other way.

Minato smiled while he listened to his daughter behind him, she was just as snappy as his wife had been, kami she was so much like her. He hadn’t been able to see it but he could just imagine the fire in her eyes like her mother when angry and setting the boys in their place. She was beautiful, Kakashi had been right. He frowned, even the Uchiha heir thought so. Minato wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Sakura eyed the medic team with a careful eye. One out of the three seemed competent enough, the other two were clearly still learning. Her eyes moved to the Jounin called Shizune. There was a shrewd woman Sakura surmised and smiled. She was just what she was looking for.

Minato saw the girl apraising the team he had brought for them. He was impressed. She was observant, like him. She had already figured out two of the three were students still and he thought she was impressed with Shizune...as she should be. It was amazing for him to see those facial expressions on her little face...Kushina’s expressions. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

Rasa watched the Hokage watch his daughter with interest. Was the man thinking of a match? Maybe for his daughter and the Uchiha heir? It wouldn’t be a bad match, however Sakura was promised to Gaara already and had been for the last three years. She just hadn’t been told yet...or Sasori.

“Hayate Gekko told me you were looking forward to meeting our medical team young Princess, tell me, what do you think of them?” Minato asked his daughter politely, politically correct and polite.

“Two of them seem very capable. I look forward to learning all I can...from two of them.” She looked to Shizune who raised an eyebrow at the young girl’s audacity, and to the team lead of the medic team who winked at her...which made her laugh.

‘Kushina’s laugh’, Minato’s body betrayed him and he jerked in his seat. Kakashi had noticed and spoke quickly, “I apologize but my team is tired, may we please be excused to our quarters Hokage Sama?”

Minato was grateful, “Yes of course perhaps all of us should take a bit of rest before dinner?” He looked at the rest of the Konoha nin who looked exhausted. He had pushed them to get here as quickly as possible.

“Of course, of course, please take some rest. I will have someone come escort you to dinner in a few hours.” Rasa waved the Konoha nin out of the dinning hall, their escorts had appeared in a puff of smoke and the teams were being led off to their designated rooms. The Hokage would be staying with the family in the guest wing of the manse.

“Come on Sakura, let’s go back to our room.” Gaara was pulling her by the arm before she could say no. Sasori followed them closely with a slight nod to the Hokage as they left.

“I apologize for my brother, he is very protective of his student.” Rasa said as Sakura, Gaara and Sasori walked out the far door.

“Not at all, it is nice she has someone so worthy to look after her.” Minato turned back to the Kazekage and smiled with sincerity.

Whatever the Kazekage had said next Minato didn’t know, his thoughts were on his daughter. She looked happy, she was safe...that was more than he could ask for...for now.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Growing up is hard when your best friend is a beautiful deadly killer assassin with the pure blooded bloodline of ages long past with the son of the Uchiha clan head after her, an Uncle who admits she will grow up to be the most beautiful woman in the world and these new 'necessary' boundaries she is shoving in your face left and right...
> 
> Gaara is pissed, hurt and feels like he is being left behind, what's a boy and his tanuki supposed to do?

It had been three years since Sakura had been granted the title of Puppet Master by Sasori and the Kazekage Rasa, and two more since Gaara and Sakura were hailed the strongest shinobi to have come out of Suna in over two generations aside from Sasori.

Six years total had passed since the night of their first joint mission to eliminate the village leaving no survivors behind. At the ages of twelve they had earned names for themselves, like their mentor and Uncle. Sabaku no Gaara, Gaara of the Desert and Akaitsuki no Sakura, Sakura of the Red Moon.

It had been three years since the medical team of Leaf shinobi had left Suna, leaving behind a fully qualified medic nin, Sakura had surpassed any student before her. Shizune could attest to that. Her insatiable thirst for knowledge, her determination to never give up and her stubbornness to push beyond the normal limitations of her age almost guaranteed her immediate success when she walked into the classroom on her first day with Shizune and her team.

For a year, Sakura only left Shizune’s side for missions and training with Sasori. For a year, the woman and the girl were almost inseparable. Shizune would send weekly reports back to Konoha, reports filled with the girl’s brilliance, strength and constant tendencies to surprise and astound Shizune with her personality and talent. 

“She is like no one I have ever met and yet, she is everyone and everything I admire and covet.” Shizune wrote in one of her final reports. Minato couldn’t be more proud and it even piqued the interest of Shizune’s mentor and teacher, Tsunade Senju.

It had been very difficult for Gaara at first. All the changes around him both frightened him and upset him. He loved Sakura more than anything he had ever loved before and it had felt like he was losing her. Losing her to his Uncle, to the Konoha medical team, to Shizune and even to the Hokage who would come every few months to check on his team and invite the royal family back to Konoha with him…but he couldn’t stop time, no matter how hard he might have wanted to and so time went on.

He eventually adjusted to his new place in her life. They spoke several times long into the night, their hands linked, their heads pressed together on the pillow of his bed. She would wake to hear his whispered joys, his fears and his love for her. He would fall asleep to her touch, her fingers through his hair, her breath on his cheek. Their time together was less, but more at the same time and he cherished every moment he was able to spend with her.

Gaara moved swiftly across the rooftops that separated his room from hers. He had felt her return from her last mission and he wanted to be there to welcome her back to Suna. She had been gone for over two weeks this time on a mission into Rain with their sister village...Konoha. The reformed alliance and the efforts of both the Hokage and the Kazekage had turned the two villages into something the five great nations had never seen before. They weren’t just allies, they were an extension of one another, each with their own head of state.

It was from one of their joint missions Sakura had just returned from. He found her lying on her bed, shinobi gear still on , her head turned to the side holding a small...piece of jewelry. It was a necklace he realized as he peered over her shoulder and his heart burned with jealousy. That Uchiha asshole had given her another gift. It was presumptuous and improper...and it really pissed him off.

“He shouldn’t be giving you things.” Gaara folded his arms over his chest and glared at the necklace.

“You don’t even know who it is from.” She sighed...every damn time. Of course she knew he was there, she had felt him racing toward her as soon as her foot had touched Suna sand.

“I can feel his presence on it, on you…” He growled.

Sakura rolled over onto her back and looked up at his looming form.

“Shove it up your ass Gaara, we’re just friends. Itachi is a nice guy, relax.” She got up off of her bed and put the necklace on her dresser.

“Does Uncle know this ‘Nice guy’, is giving you jewelry?” He asked, he knew she kept these things from Sasori.

“No, and you’re not going to tell him because if you do ...I’ll poison you.” She smiled sweetly at him...she wasn’t joking.

Last year when Itachi had come to Suna with a team of Konoha shinobi Gaara had been less than ‘Cordial’ to him. A light conversation had ended with more than one bloody nose and several old buildings toppled to the ground...and later that night, one poisoned Gaara. She had given him the antidote of course but not until he had apologized to Itachi through gritted teeth.

Gaara huffed and sat down on her bed. “He isn’t that special you know. He has the sharingan for sure but I can manipulate sand, there are only three people who can manipulate sand.” He said smugly.

“Yeah yeah and I’m one of them, get lost. I want to take a bath.” She pulled him up off of her bed and started shoving him out the door.

“I’ll be back later.” He said over his shoulder as she pushed him out of her window...it was closer.

“No, I want to sleep alone tonight, besides um...I think maybe it’s time we stop sleeping together...it seems...wrong now Gaara, we’re a lot older now and um. It’s weird. Maybe just on missions from now on, when it’s just the two of us.” Her face was flushed red and she wouldn’t look him in the eye.

That’s exactly why Gaara wanted to sleep with her though...she had become so much more than a friend in the last few years, she was...she was...he wasn’t sure what she was to him now, he only knew he didn’t like it when other boys looked at her, gave her gifts or wrote her letters…

Fortunately she only gave one other than himself any attention, but he wanted her to give all of her attention to him, and only him. Deep down he was still that spoiled little brat who didn’t want to share her with anyone or anything and it had gotten worse over the years, almost like an obsession.

Sakura wasn’t a fool. She knew that Gaara’s feelings for her had changed, they were twelve now, not the innocent four year olds they had once been. She knew Itachi Uchiha gave her gifts because he liked her, she knew Sasori Kun scared almost any boy who even looked at her with the threat of becoming his newest human puppet if they so much as looked at her again. She knew. What she didn’t know was how she felt about any of it. It was confusing.

She loved Gaara. She loved Sasori, but these new feelings she was having...made it hard for her to be around Gaara, made it hard for her to look Sasori in the eyes sometimes. It made her feel guilty, dirty and almost disgusted with herself sometimes. Shizune had explained a little bit of it to her while she had been there but not enough. So she did what any sensible girl her age would do. She ignored it and focused on her training.

A month later word had come in that a small group of unknown missing nin had been spotted on the southern border of Wind, near Noodle Bay. Sakura and Gaara were dispatched as a team to find and observe the group, see if they posed a threat and to eliminate them if necessary. Sasori was gone at the time the Intel had come in on a mission in waves, or he too would have gone with them. They were the best stealth and recon team the Sand had.

Sakura and Gaara traveled quickly over the desert, Gaara having mastered his sand teleportation and she having learned the body flicker from Shisui the Teleporter on one of her visits to Konoha. 

A journey that would have taken a regular team three days took the deadly duo only one. They stopped at a small inn just outside of Kaze for the night, in the morning they would scout out the area around Noodle Bay.

Sakura sat cross legged on the bed looking over the two maps of the area they had brought with them. She scoffed at the names, ‘Noodle Bay’, what idiot thought that was a good name she didn’t know. Gaara came in holding two bentos and set them on the table. She rose and stretched, folding the maps back up and putting them in her bag. 

They ate in relative silence. It seemed like they talked less now that they were older, had seen more blood. Less words meant more to them now.

Gaara smiled as they got ready for bed. When they went on missions together, they always slept together. He was pleased she hadn’t taken that away from him too.

It had been a year ago they had had their first serious argument. He had crept into her bed late at night because he couldn’t sleep and she had yelled at him. She had been gone for a week that time, he hadn’t slept the whole time she was gone and he had needed her. Shukaku had needed her and she had rejected them both.

Shukaku had been furious, livid and had taken control of Gaara forcing Sakura down onto her bed demanding an explanation for all of these ridiculous changes, for pushing them away for what seemed to both he and Gaara of her sudden emotional abandonment of them. 

The Sand Anbu had shown up, Sasori had moved to intervene but stopped with a look from Sakura. She wanted to handle this.

Shukaku had roared and wailed until Sakura had wrapped her arms around the smaller form the tanuki had taken, who had her pinned to her bed and hugged him, telling him, she loved him, that it was just how things were, that she wasn't a little girl anymore and that Gaara wasn’t a little boy anymore.

He had demanded she promise, had reminded her of the promise she had made them long ago, that she would never leave them. He made her promise she would always love them and be there for them. She had kissed him on the nose and promised in front of Sasori Kun and the Sand Anbu. 

Satisfied, Shukaku relented control back to Gaara, who had blinked several times and brought his hands to his head, noticing only then he was laying on top of Sakura, and that the Anbu and his Uncle were watching them. His face had flushed bright red and he had run from her room, from Suna and spent the next three days alone in the desert.

From then on, he had tried to be more and more understanding, had taken long trips into the desert to vent, to calm himself when the stress of growing up became too much. Sometimes she would go with him, just the two of them. More often than not though, it was just him.

Gaara watched her cross the room in her sleeping clothes and crawl into bed beside him. He turned off the light and cuddled up next to her and she let him. He pulled her closer to him and nuzzled the back of her neck...and she let him, closing her eyes and falling asleep almost as quickly as she used to do when they were children.

The truth was, she slept better when she slept with Gaara. They had shared a bed for so long, it felt natural to have him there beside her, it made her feel safe, wanted. She had shared a bedroll a few times with Sasori Kun, on a cold winter night outside of Suna on a mission but not in the last few years. He said it was inappropriate now that she was getting older, and so she found it hard to sleep sometimes.

This was...familiar, safe and she had missed it terribly no matter what she told Gaara. She wished they could sleep together every night still.

Gaara’s eyes flashed yellow as he held her while she slept.

‘She misses us boy, she loves us.’ Shukaku said to him.

‘Then why does she push us away still, she never lets us hold her like this anymore.’ Gaara complained.

‘She will, be patient.’ Shukaku said calmly.

‘You’re telling me to be patient.’ Gaara muttered.

‘We must trust her. She promised us didn’t she? She promised us she would never leave us, love only us.’ Shukaku insisted.

‘She never promised to love only us.’ Gaara pointed out, thinking of Sasori, of the Uchiha.

‘Your Uncle is too old for her, the Uchiha is in a different village, who else does she have to choose from, who else is worthy but us. She will choose us, she is our mate, she has no choice.’ Shukaku insisted.

‘She doesn’t know she is our mate.’ Gaara complained again.

‘Then mark her, Mark her so she will know and so will everyone else.’ Shukaku said forcefully.

‘I can’t do something like that without telling her, without explaining to her what it means!’ Gaara was angry that the tanuki would even suggest such a thing.

‘We will lose her because of your stupidity boy...the Uchiha shouldn’t have been allowed to get this close and I do not trust your Uncle.’ 

‘You said my Uncle was too old for her.’ Gaara reminded him.

‘Old not unworthy.’ Shukaku begrudgingly admitted.

‘He does not look at her that way.’ Gaara knew it for a fact.

‘Not yet.’ Shukaku growled darkly.

‘She loves me.’ Gaara insisted.

‘Us boy.’ Shukaku reminded him.

Sakura murmured something in her sleep and rolled over, her head tucked under Gaara’s chin. He rubbed her back and closed his eyes.

“I love you, please don’t ever leave me. You promised, remember you promised me.” He whispered into the top of her head.

She woke to the sound of water. Gaara was in the shower, breakfast was on the small table in their room. She smiled looking at the table, he always did things like this for her, little things that showed he cared. Sakura stretched and yawned. One foot then the other hit the cold wood floor and she shivered.

January was cold, even in Suna. Gaara’s birthday had passed, he was thirteen now but they still celebrated their birthdays on the same day, like when they were younger. February twentieth, that’s when they celebrated both of their birthdays. Neither of them went on missions right before their birthday, they always, always celebrated it together with sticky rolls from their favorite stand in Suna.

Sakura had already gotten Gaara’s birthday present for him. Naruto, her brother, had taught her a storage sealing jutsu. She had gotten Gaara a smaller gourd and placed the storage seal on the outside. He would be able to store massive amounts of sand inside the tiny little gourd at his waist, without drawing attention his huge gourd tended to do, and it helped to lighten his load allowing him more flexible mobility.

Naruto still didn’t know she was his sister. She had a strong feeling Minato knew she was his daughter, his attention to her hadn’t gone unnoticed. Sakura however was at odds with Sasori as to whether Rasa knew her true background or not. 

He was still convinced he knew, while she wasn’t so sure. Some of the things he said made it clear to her he was oblivious, but then sometimes he would give her a look while she spoke with Minato that indicated else wise.

Perhaps it was her hormones, Sakura grumbled. Shizune had pulled her aside before she had left to go back to Konoha and told her all the things a young woman ought to know since she didn’t have a mother to tell her. Sakura had started her courses while Shizune had been there, early, that’s what Shizune had said. 

Sakura had started her courses much earlier than most girls but Sakura didn’t mind, she was glad she had started early, so Shizune had the opportunity to talk to her about what it meant to be a young woman.

Sasori Kun, try as he might, fell woefully short in the ‘Young women’ department. He had done his best but he had left out some very important parts. Sakura knew it wasn’t in his nature to go into detail about things he knew she could learn from books or scrolls, but she felt first hand advice was better than a book for some of the things Shizune had taught her.

For instance, she understood her irrational need to play with her victims now. Before she thought perhaps she was coming unhinged, but she soon realized she was just PMSing and knew how to control more of her dangerous urges for those times of the month. 

Restraint, Sasori had called it. He himself admitted he never felt the need to restrain himself but then again, he wasn’t a woman who had to worry about PMSing, he had said offhand one day almost two years ago after walking through one of her decimated villages.

“A little bit of an overkill don’t you think dear?” He had drawled motioning to the man pinned to the side of a house.

She had shrugged and stomped her way back to their camp for the night. Gaara gave her a wide berth that evening and didn’t for once insist on sleeping with her.

Sakura’s mind focused back on the task in front of her. She pulled her sleeping clothes off and pulled on her shinobi clothes before sitting down at the table. Gaara came out of the bathroom a moment later in his own shinobi clothes, spiky red locks wet and steaming from his shower.

He sat down opposite her and pulled a plate of sausages to him, plucking one up in between his fingers and shoving the whole thing into his mouth at once. Sakura laughed. She remembered when they were kids he had such good table manners, now he ate more like a regular guy. She bit her lip and looked up at him over the rim of her cup of tea.

Gaara was quite handsome, she hadn’t ever really noticed until she had heard some girls in the market talking about him when they didn’t think she was listening. He never gave any of them a second look though, and she wondered if he knew how handsome he was. She shook her head, they had other things to think about.

“I was thinking we could start by combing the desert along the ridge.” Sakura told him her plan.

“Then we could double back along the shore. If the missing nin are looking to use this unpopulated stretch of coastline for anything nefarious, there will be signs of it along the coast. They might be here to avoid the ports, to hide whatever it is they’re doing. If they’re even here.” She said.

It was always a possibility they were just passing through, but she had a small hunch they were there for a reason. No one occupied this stretch of the coast in Wind country...nothing was there. The coast was rocky and unmanageable. There was one very narrow stretch of beach along the far side of the coast by the little nameless peninsula, but that was about it. 

No ship could dock along the rocky shore, the vegetation was cacti and of little use to anyone. It was one of the reasons the first Kazekage made Suna, where it was and not along the coast. It was a very inconvenient stretch of land. Perfect however, if you wished to hide your contraband and activities.

They finished their breakfast and checked out of their room. They would be camping for the next few days. Sakura waved to the innkeeper who had come out of the front door holding the small bag of gold Sakura had given them for their silence. The innkeeper waved them good bye and wished them luck, assuring them a room when they traveled back that way in a few days.

Most Wind residents were loyal, however, it never hurt to throw a bit of gold around to ensure their silence, particularly when they were hunting missing nin.

Sakura and Gaara had made it to the Coast of the Gulf of Wind by the end of their second day without meeting another soul, not even one of the many groups of nomads that traveled Winds borders and deserts in trade. This was unusual and made Sakura and Gaara very suspicious. 

They camped that night beside the ridge in not quite a cave but not out in the open. Sasori had a safe house near their location but Sakura didn’t dare take Gaara there, Sasori would be furious with her if she even entertained the thought.

Since they were younger, Gaara had tried to follow, locate or charm the locations out of Sakura to Sasori’s many safe houses around the desert but had failed every time. It was a note of hostility between the two of them. She felt he should respect her word to Sasori while he thought she shouldn’t be keeping secrets from him. They would never agree on the topic so they both ignored it.

Gaara watched Sakura stir their stew. He had caught a few fish, but they were too small to grill so she had cleaned them and put them into their smallest pot they had brought with them, added a few mushrooms she had and some carrots she had packed with their other provisions. Her hair had grown long, she rarely cut it. It was a testament to her skill, no enemy could get close enough to her to even touch it much less grab it and use it against her.

Gaara’s mind wandered. He had stopped the tanuki several times over the past years from taking control, reminding him that in the end their goal was the same. The beast at first had been resilient, argumentative and down right hostile but he had calmed down a bit more lately. Gaara had been talking to him quite a lot on this trip. He needed a plan, he had to think things through, he needed to be careful.

He argued the same points over and over with Shukaku, but the end was the same. She loved him, maybe not the same way he had come to realize he loved her now, but they had a bond, a history no one else could tear apart...except perhaps his Uncle.

Sasori was his only competition the way he saw it. He had conceded to the raccoon that he might be an issue in the future but stuck by his proclamation that he wasn’t...currently.

Gaara also reminded Shukaku the more they tried to control Sakura, influence her and own her, the more she fought them, tried to pull away and distanced herself from them. He wanted her to come to them, and in order for that to happen he told the raccoon, he had to distance himself from her. Shukaku didn’t like the sound of that at all and they had spent the better part of fishing arguing back and forth, so much that he had only been able to catch two measly little fish.

In the end, Gaara had won. He suspected the tanuki had only let him win so that when his plan blew up in his face, he could blame him for it. Gaara didn’t care. He learned from his mistakes and every time he had tried to tie her down and control her, she had pushed him away, closed herself off and cut him out. He knew he was making the right choice. He would still be there for her if she needed him, would still be her Gaara, but he wasn’t going to try to keep her locked to his side anymore...mostly because he couldn’t.

Sakura watched as Gaara rose from his seat across from her fully expecting him to come sit behind her and wrap his arms around her, she sighed, he never listened to her and it was getting really annoying. Her head rose to follow him when he didn’t come to sit behind her like she thought he was going to, instead he went to his pack and pulled out their sleeping sacks. Two of them, and placed one on one side of the alcove and one on the other, apart from one another, separate. She blinked. He wasn’t going to sleep with her tonight?

She looked back down into the pot before he noticed she had been watching him and frowned. She had wanted to sleep with him again tonight, they were on a mission, together, without Sasori, they always slept together on missions. 

‘This is good’, she told herself. It meant he had started listening to her, giving her more space that she had asked him for over a year ago. ‘It’s what you wanted’, she reminded herself. Was it?

Sakura looked up to find Gaara watching her again. She smiled at him and he smiled back, turned and got the bowls out from his pack, set them beside her and the fire, then pulled a book from his pouch and sat down across from her, opening it on his knee to read...ignoring her.

‘What the hell’, she stared at him.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are different kinds of love, just as there are different kinds of jealousy. One does not love a sister the same way one loves a lover, and a daughter might be jealous at the attention a father gives a new girlfriend, as a lover might be jealous of the attention their lover gives another. No good can come of either or any.

Sakura tossed and turned in her sleeping sack for what seemed like the one hundredth time that night. ‘Why hadn’t Gaara at least laid his sleeping sack next to hers’, she looked over at his shadowed form beyond the coals of their banked fire. His back was to her, his breathing even but she knew he was awake.

She bit her lip. Was he mad at her for something? She couldn’t think of anything she had done. He was doing exactly what she had asked him to do, give her space but now that he was giving it to her, she didn’t want it.

Was that fair? She huffed to herself and rolled over yet again and moaned into her sleeve. She didn’t want space, she had only said that because...because she was supposed to, because that’s what Sasori Kun had told her to do. She turned over again to find Gaara had also turned and was looking at her.

“Sakura, is something wrong?” He called softly to her from the other side of their camp.

“No.” She said and turned over onto her side.

“Sakura.” He called her name again and she rolled over to face him, cheeks tinted pink.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her.

She sighed. “I just...I thought we were going to sleep together tonight.” Her voice came out small and she hated it.

“I thought you wanted space. Isn’t that what you said?” He asked her, confusion clear in his voice.

“Yes but...we always sleep together on missions.” She closed her eyes, she couldn’t stand him looking at her the way he was looking at her at that moment.

She felt her sleeping covers being pulled back and up, felt him slide onto her sleeping pad next to her and gather her in his arms. She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed again, this time in comfort.

“All you had to do was say so.” He pet her hair with one hand and rubbed little comforting circles on her back with the other.

“Just on missions, when it’s just us okay?” She said, just to clarify.

“If Sasori knew he would…”

“He doesn’t need to know.” Gaara smiled into her hair, inhaling her scent and closing his eyes.

“He doesn’t need to know.” He repeated and felt her nod her head into his chest.

‘Ours, she’s ours.’ Shukaku crowed in his head.

‘I told you it would work’, Gaara said to the tanuki smugly.

‘For how long’, Shukaku was already complaining it wasn’t going to be enough.

‘For however long she wants it to’, Gaara countered then shut the tanuki out to concentrate on Sakura’s breathing, her smell, and the feel of her hair as it brushed against the side of his cheek.

Sakura woke to a soft tickling just under her ear and warm hands on her back. Gaara was nuzzling her. She smiled , stretched and yawned.

“Sleep well Sakura?” Gaara almost purred in her ear and she blushed.

“Yes.” She turned in his arms and kissed him lightly on his kanji.

Gaara resisted the urge to kiss her mouth, he knew he would lose any credibility he had earned back last night if he did that, so instead he smiled back at her...and let her go, stood and stretched himself.

He hadn’t slept last night, he had stayed up and watched over her while she slept, but it was okay, he felt well rested as though he had slept the whole night through, just being able to hold her, to be close to her again, was enough for him.

After a quick breakfast they traveled back along the coast jumping from granite outcrop to sand to rock to coral as they went. By mid day they came to the small sandy beach Sakura had located on the map only to duck and take cover. She hadn’t felt them, she had almost missed them and she had no idea why.

“They have no chakra signature.” Gaara murmured quietly in her ear.

They were white, with green hair. They were the oddest things she had ever seen. They were in the shape of men but they weren’t quite men. Sakura watched them move about on the beach, one right after the other some loading, some unloading, all in straight uniform lines, all looking exactly alike, all twenty of them.

Gaara tapped her shoulder then pointed out to the gulf where a ship was anchored. Sakura squinted but she couldn’t make out a flag of any kind, markings that told what land they were from, nothing. There was only one thing on the whole ship, one red cloud, outlined in white across the hull. How strange she thought.

“Kumo?” Gaara asked her.

“I don’t think so, it isn’t the same kind of cloud.” She whispered back.

“What is it they are loading on and off the boats?” Gaara leaned forward but couldn’t make it out.

“I don’t know. Eliminate your chakra and send a clone down there along the sand, find out, but be careful. We don’t know what those things are.” Sakura motioned to the beach before them.

Gaara nodded, made a sand clone and watched as it fell to the ground and slithered with the breeze toward the beach.

“We need to hurry, we have to finish this quickly, Leader Sama and Konan have already left for Rain to speak with the Puppet master, they will expect this to be done before they return.” One white bodied figure said to the others.

“A waste of time if you ask me, he won’t join us, maybe before, but not now. Not with his little pet.” One of the white men showed a wide sharp toothed grin to the other.

“Maybe she would come with him?” Another suggested.

“Not likely, the daughter of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki join the Akatsuki? Don’t make me laugh.” Gaara’s clone stopped moving along the cracks of the rock in the sand to listen.

“If she’s his daughter, why is she still in Suna, why isn’t she home in Konoha then?” One of the white men argued with the other.

“She doesn’t know she’s the Hokage’s daughter, a drunk merchant bought her from an orphanage, remember?” 

“I heard she already knows, that her master already told her.”

“She stays for the boy, the Ichibi.” Another of the white men butt into the conversation much to the annoyance of the others.

“If the Kazekage had his way, she will be married to the Gaara boy faster than Sasori can stop him.”

“I don’t think the Kazekage knows about her though.”

“Sasori of the Red Sand does though, and the Hokage knows too, why else would he have pushed so hard for the close relationship Suna shares with Konoha, it wasn’t the Kazekage’s idea, that’s for sure.” One of them argued.

“Is that why Leader Sama wants Sasori of the Red Sand? For the girl?”

“Sasori of the Red Sand is a good addition to our ranks whether the girl comes with him or not.” One of the white men scoffed at the others.

Gaara’s sand clone slunk farther back into the rocks falling to sand and floating up over in the wind back to where Gaara and Sakura were waiting.

“Well?” Sakura asked the moment the sand clone returned to them.

“We should move before we talk.” Gaara looked at his clone who looked blankly back then jerked it’s head at Sakura, who had turned her eyes back to the white men moving around on the beach.

Gaara nodded and dispersed his clone. Shock ripped through him as he absorbed the information from his clone. His head whipped to Sakura’s, he saw her in a new light with this discovery. Did she know? How could he tell her...he grabbed her by the arm and teleported them back to the halfway point from the inn and their current location without a word of warning to her.

“What the hell Gaara?” She pulled away from him once they had appeared at the bottom of a small dune in the near middle of the desert.

“Sakura, do you know who your real father is?” His eyes were sharp, focused and unwavering as he watched her for a reaction of any kind.

If he hadn’t known her as well as he did, he might have missed it. She barely flinched, but she flinched nonetheless. His eyes narrowed further.

“You do, don’t you...why Sakura, why didn’t you tell me?” He was hurt.

Sakura looked at her friend, her mouth opened and closed. He knew.

“What did they say?” For it could only have been those white men on the beach to have brought this up, now.

“They were talking amongst themselves, speculating as to whether or not you knew Minato Namikaze was your father and his wife Kushina Uzumaki was your mother! That the only reason you were in Suna was because of...me!” He wasn’t yelling but his words were fierce, emotional.

“I am in Suna because of you. You and Sasori Kun Gaara.” She said quietly.

“So you knew? You know that the Hokage is your father?” He couldn’t believe it, she knew and she had stayed because...because of them?

“When, when did you find out Sakura?” Her answer was important, how long had she known, how long had she kept this from him…

“Sasori Kun told me when I was eight.” She said quietly.

Gaara’s lips pressed to a thin line and his eyes turned hard.

“Four years, you’ve been lying to me for four years?” He was mad, she knew.

“Gaara you don’t understand, there’s more to it, more than I can tell you. It was for my own safety Gaara, I couldn’t tell you. The more people that knew, the more danger it put me in, try to understand Gaara.” She reached out to him but he pulled away from her.

“You couldn’t tell me though, you didn’t trust me to keep your secret?” He was livid and hurt and…

“I didn’t want to put you in danger, don’t you understand that?” She was getting mad now.

“I was protecting you idiot!” She had her hands on her hips.

“Protecting me? From what?” He growled at her, it was a ridiculous excuse as far as he was concerned.

“From people using you to get me obviously!” She yelled at him.

Gaara frowned.

“You’re already the Kazekage’s son in line to be the next Kazekage, you're the one tailed Jinchiriki, damn it Gaara, we were both in the Bingo book at the age of eight! Of course I was trying to protect you.” She said exasperated.

“I don’t need you to protect me. I need you to be honest with me.” He tried to calm his tone, he tried to be reasonable but it was just another thing she had kept from him, would have continued to keep from him if he hadn’t found out.

“I wanted to tell you Gaara.” Her voice was soft and her eyes had moistened.

“I really did, but Sasori Kun, he said we couldn’t tell anyone, that they would try to use me to breed the next generation or something.”

“What?” He said, his stomach turning over.

“Because of Tsunade.” She said.

“The Legendary Sannin?” He asked and Sakura nodded.

“She is Minato’s mother and her lover Dan Kato was the illegitimate son of the Third Kazekage so…”

“What!” Gaara almost yelled.

“You didn’t know?” Of course he didn’t know, she could have stabbed herself for her stupidity.

“You’re sand manipulation.” His eyes grew wide.

Sakura nodded. “We're really family, but distant, not a close blood tie.” She felt the need to clarify that point to him.

“Does my father know?”

She shook her head, “I don’t think so, but Sasori Kun thinks he does.”

“So MInato knows, my father doesn’t know, you know and I know.” He said.

“And Sasori Kun.” She said.

“Shit, Sasori Sama! We need to go.” Gaara grabbed her around the waist and they disappeared in a flurry of sand reappearing back at the inn, then disappeared again over the border of Rain.

“Gaara, what about Sasori Kun, why are we here, is this Rain?” Sakura looked around.

“Those men, the weird white guys, they said, that their Leader and someone named Konan was going to try to recruit Sasori Sama for their organization or what was the name damn it.” He was breathing heavily. It was easier for him to use his sand teleportation now but with two people and covering the distance they had just teleported, he was a little worn out.

Sakura dug around in her pack and pulled out two of her soldier pills and gave them to him, he ate them with a small smile and told her exactly what he had heard. While he talked she had sent her chakra out in a cloud around them, she could manipulate a much stronger and a much larger chakra cloud now enabling her to find and locate her targets with ruthless efficiency.

She had Sasori’s chakra point locked in her brain. “This way.” She took off at a dead run, leaving Gaara to follow as he could.

He felt her moving quickly in his direction. He saw the realization pass over the amber eyed woman’s face as well, she knew she was coming. Sasori let out a small gasp, Sakura’s attack would be no use against this woman and Gaara’s sand would have no effect, he had to do something and fast.

“Give me three years, please. Three years and I will join you, but my apprentice, she remains off limits. She will not join you, ever. It is my only offer, take it or kill me now.” Sasori stuck his hand out to the woman in a show of good faith.

Konan looked at the hand offered to her, then beyond him to the rise of the distant mountain where the chakra signatures were coming from, moving quickly in their direction.

“You care for her don’t you, she is...precious to you?” Konan asked, her tone monotone and flat, her eyes void of any emotion.

For once in his life Sasori spoke the uninhibited truth to someone other than Sakura, because he knew her life, and possibly his depended on it.

“She is my everything. I would do anything to protect her. Three years, you have my word.” He said, his hand still extended.

“You are much more reasonable than I was led to believe. Whatever your reason, it doesn’t matter to me, only that you join us. I will hold you to your word Sasori of the Red Sand and come back for you in three years.” Konan inclined her head to Sasori who paused.

“I will find you, there is no need to come and get me. I gave you my word.” Konan shook his hand and disappeared in a flurry of small square papers that shot off in all directions until they were collected by the wind.

Sakura saw him in the distance and flickered to his side, her sword drawn, her puppet out, “Where Sasori Kun, where is the person called Konan and this Leader Sama we heard about?”

Her eyes darted left then right, up and down. “I can feel it, it’s faint, but where is he?” Sakura looked around but saw no one.

“She’s gone.” Sasori spoke softly, his eyes cast downward at his open palm.

Sakura whirled to stare at her master, the tone in his voice was...her heart clenched, “She?” Sakura asked, astonished.

“Yes, her name is...Konan.” Sasori shook his head as if clearing it of the thoughts of this woman named Konan.

Heat exploded in Sakura’s heart. Sasori Kun had never spoken a woman’s name the way he had just spoken this woman, Konan’s name before and she was...jealous.

Gaara stood beside Sakura, on the other side, his eyes took in the curiosity before him. His Uncle spoke of this Konan woman with...emotion, and an unreadable kind of emotion that he didn’t understand. He did however understand one thing for certain. Sakura, was jealous.

“Why are you here?” Sasori asked them, finally turning to them and looking them in the eyes.

Sakura noticed he couldn’t quite hold her gaze and she clenched her fists, her nails piercing the palms of her hands where she clenched them too tightly. Blood started to drip from her knuckles but she ignored it, as did Sasori, as did Gaara.

“We were on a recon mission at the western most border and along the coast of Noodle Bay. A group of rogue nin were spotted moving along the coast and the western ridge. The Kazekage sent Sakura and I to check the validity of the reports.” Gaara spoke because Sakura seemed unable to at the moment.

“And?” Sasori raised his eyebrow at his Nephew.

“And, we found them, or some of them I believe. White men with green hair, odd things, like clones but moving and talking separately. There were roughly twenty of them loading and unloading a boat. There was a large ship anchored off the coast that I assume they were from the ship had no markings, not a flag only a red cloud, outlined in white.” Gaara concluded.

Sasori clenched his fist under the cover of his robe. The Akatsuki. The same symbol the woman had on her cloak, the same organization. What were they doing so close to their home, in Wind…

“Sasori Kun, who was that woman and what did she want with you? Gaara overheard the white men speaking to one another, they said that someone named Leader Sama and a person named Konan was going to try to convince you to join a group called the Akatsuki, that was her wasn’t it, that woman, that Konan?” Sakura’s voice was high, almost shrill, demanding. Sasori had never heard her speak like this to him before.

“It’s none of your concern girl.” He said passively and turned away from her bloodied fists still clenched at her sides and her burning eyes.

“Sasori!” Sakura called his name as he turned from her.

“Enough!” Sasori raised his voice to her call.

“Do you not trust me? Am I not your master girl?” He demanded.

Sakura had enough sense to bite her tongue, to look down at her feet but her fists remained clenched at her sides as her blood continued to drip from her knuckles.

“I’m sorry.” She said loud enough for him to hear.

Sasori stepped back to her and raised her chin with his hand gently. “Trust me girl. It really is nothing for you to be concerned about. You have nothing to worry about Sakura.” His eyes held hers until she nodded that she understood.

“That’s my girl.” His hand dropped away from her chin and he turned and walked away, disappearing into the woods that surrounded them.

She felt his chakra signature fade away bit by bit as she stood there, her head down, her chin against her chest where it had dropped, when his fingers had dropped from her chin. Sakura stood there until she could feel him no more, until she was sure he was gone.

When she lifted her head Gaara could see she was fighting the urge to cry. Her bottom lip quivered and he looked away. He both worried for her and was angry at her, at the same time. She was hurt, he understood. She was jealous, he understood.

She needed him. He sighed. “Sakura.” He held out his arms and she stepped into them.

His sand rose up around them and they vanished just as the sun started to set over the mountains.

Gaara laid her down on his bed and removed her boots, then her guards and cuffs. He removed her pouch and her obi, her pins from her hair and her sword from her back.

“Gaara?” Her voice was light, wavering.

“Yes Sakura?” He sat down on his bed beside her.

“Why can’t things be like they were when we were kids? Why does everything have to change?” She asked him.

Gaara was ashamed. He had been so focused on his own feelings he hadn’t stopped once to think of hers and how she felt, how they affected her.

“We aren’t kids anymore. It’s hard sometimes, and I know I fought you on it but I’m starting to see things more clearly now Sakura. You’re right. We can’t stop change and we aren’t the little four years olds that we used to be. We’re getting older now and while some things change other things won’t.” He took her hand and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles.

“Remember what you told me once?” He laid down beside her, facing her and took her hand and put it on his chest, over his heart.

“Even if we’re apart, you’re here, right here with me in my heart.” He smiled at her.

“That will never change Sakura. I will always have you in my heart, no matter where you are.” He said softly.

“Or who you’re with.” He whispered as she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

‘Yes’, he said to himself, to Shukaku, ‘Somethings will never change, but I think...I love you more now, than I ever did when we were kids.’ Gaara reached out and brushed her hair from her face. His chest hurt. She hadn’t cried, but she had wanted to...for Sasori. 

‘Would you cry for me Sakura?’, he wondered, ‘If you thought you were losing me too?’


	22. Chapter 22

“Sakura.” Gaara’s voice was gentle against the side of her face.

Gaara could feel his Uncle returning from who knew where the man went after he had left them in the forest in Rain when he was supposed to be on a mission in Waves.

“Sakura.” Gaara whispered her name against her cheek.

She turned her head to the sound of his voice and her lips brushed his. He froze, closed his eyes and waited. She moved against him, her legs stretched out and her arms wrapped around his neck. They were almost the same height, he had only three inches on her. Her lips brushed his again as she mumbled something in her sleep. 

Without thinking, without knowing what he wanted or what he hoped to gain by doing it he pulled her closer to him and fit his mouth over hers. Sakura’s eyes sprang open wide and she gasped, then shoved Gaara as hard as she could away from her. He grabbed at the blanket on his bed but fell over the side anyway, taking the blanket with him.

“Gaara, what...what...were you, did you just kiss me?” She was on her feet now, fingers touching her lips, hair a tangled mess down her back.

Gaara looked up at her from the floor, the crumpled heap of spiky red, glowing teal and rumpled blanket. “Yea.”

Sakura looked down at Gaara. His eyes were so clear and looked more blue in the morning light than green, his spiky hair was flattened on one side and sticking out adorably on the other, the blanket from his bed half on , half off one of his shoulders as he half sat, half lay on the ground at her feet grinning up at her with a sort of lopsided smile.

She blushed a brilliant peony pink, her fingers still touching her lips where his had been moments ago.

“Oh.” Was all she had managed to get out.

“I have to go!” She flickered from his room to hers just as Sasori opened the door to her room.

“Sakura?” He asked seeing her wide eyed and standing in the middle of her room.

Sasori narrowed his eyes and looked around her room, her bed was made. “Where is your shinobi gear Sakura?” He asked her, stepping into her room.

“Uh. I slept with Gaara last night.” She told him, it wasn’t any use lying to someone like Sasori, he already knew, suspected or would find out...then, she would be punished for lying.

Sasori crossed his arms in front of him. Sakura narrowed her eyes.

“Where were you last night Sasori Kun?” She asked him boldly.

Sasori raised both of his eyebrows in surprise at her audacity. “It’s none of your business, girl.” He turned to leave but she stopped him with her tone.

“Were you with that woman? That Konan?” Sakura’s bottom lips trembled but not because she was about to cry, no, because she was pissed.

“Does it matter if I was? Why do you care?” He asked her, truly curious.

“I...it doesn’t matter, I just...you’ve never spoken of her. I’ve never met her...she could be a security risk.” Sakura said quickly.

“A security risk?” Sasori’s mouth twitched.

Sakura glared at him.

“I told you, she isn’t anyone you need to worry about.” He turned again and left her standing in the middle of her room.

Gaara watched Sakura talk to his Uncle through her window and jumped to the roof and away when Sasori had left her room. She hadn't told his Uncle he had kissed her. His Uncle hadn’t said anything about them sleeping together again. 

Sakura had asked about that blasted woman again though. He had hoped for a better situation the first time he kissed her, but...he wasn’t going to complain. He had kissed her, she had almost kissed him back and she didn’t seem upset about it.

He had kissed her before but they had been eight. This was different. He ran across the rooftops to the bun stand and bought them breakfast. She was stepping out of the shower as he jumped through her window, breakfast in hand.

Sakura towel dried her hair and hung the wet towel over the back of her desk chair to dry as she sat down at the small table and couch where Gaara was pulling out their breakfast.

“Thank you Gaara.” She smiled and picked up one of the warm buns and bit into it.

“I slept better last night than I have slept in days, Sakura, thank you for staying with me.” He picked up a bun but didn’t take a bite yet.

“I...the kiss it, wasn’t planned, it was kinda an accident but…” 

Sakura cut him off.

“It’s okay Gaara, I understand. It’s not like it was my first kiss you know.” She smiled at him.

“What?” He choked on the bite he had just taken.

“You’ve kissed me before remember?” She giggled at his expression.

“That was...that wasn’t at all the same thing Sakura!” Gaara protested.

“I know.” She said slowly.

“I’m not sure what to feel right now if that makes sense. I mean you’re you, you’re my Gaara, we’ve been together since, well, I we were kids and now we’re not and it, the kiss is a little confusing is all ya know?” She smiled at him.

“Has anyone else…”

“No.” She said quickly, it was the truth too. No one had ever kissed her but Gaara, no one had ever even tried to kiss her but Gaara.

She laughed at the idea of anyone having the balls to try to kiss her but Gaara.

“I think, most boys are scared of me.” She laughed.

“That’s not true. I see boys looking at you all the time.” Gaara crumbled one of the buns to bits.

“I see girls looking at you all the time.” She teased him.

Gaara scoffed. “As if any of them could compare to you.”

Sakura looked up from her bun. Gaara blushed, he had spoken without thinking first.

“Really?” She asked, her own cheeks tinted pink turning red.

“Of course Sakura.” He couldn’t meet her eyes so he studied his bun in his hand and took a bite.

“Thank you Gaara.” her small hand came into his line of sight, covering his hand bun and all.

He looked up at her then and smiled. “We should finish eating and go give our report.”

“Good idea.” She smiled back at him.

Sasori watched his Nephew and his student walk to the tower to give their report. Three years he had asked for, three years they had given him...he only hoped it would be enough time. He knew that the Akatsuki were growing in numbers but that their numbers had been greatly reduced over a small tragedy with Hanzo of the Salamander a year or two ago. Word from his spies said their objectives had changed to more...aggressive tactics since then.

The way they recruited wasn’t always gentle he had heard but that was usually only for missing nin, which he was not. So he had made a deal. Three years to make sure his student was set on the right path. Three years to make sure she was trained to the fullest he could possibly train her. He had three years to make sure she was safe, to ensure Rasa didn’t marry her off to his jinchuriki son Gaara.

He wasn’t blind, he knew the two young people had feelings for one another, that’s why he couldn’t leave for three more years...accidents happened, he had to make sure they wouldn’t happen to his student, his Sakura. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Gaara, he did, as much as he could like someone who wasn’t Sakura. Sakura just deserved better in Sasori’s opinion, which was the only opinion that mattered as far as Sasori was concerned.

Sasori dropped down from the rooftop in front of his nephew and student. “Come.” He said and turned away from the steps of the Kazekage’s office.

Sakura shrugged and followed Sasori around the corner down the side street by the gardens.

“You can’t tell the Kazekage what you saw in Noodle Bay.” He said sharply.

“Why?” Gaara asked.

“Because of the Akatsuki…” Sakura looked at Sasori.

“The Akatsuki?” Gaara looked from Sakura to his Uncle.

“You mean…” Gaara began.

“Yes, Sasori Kun doesn’t want your father to know that the Akatsuki are in Wind.” Sakura said.

“Why Sasori Kun?” She asked.

“It’s none of your concern.” He turned to walk away but she caught him by the sleeve, he grabbed her wrist and twisted it up, she ducked and locked her own arm around his and pressed in between his two veins on his wrist...he dropped her hand, she dropped his.

“It is my concern when you are asking me to lie to my Kazekage.” She hissed.

“Rasa is not your Kazekage. Gaara is.” Sasori said with finality and walked out of the alley off toward the market.

Sakura watched him leave, her brow furrowed.

“What will we do?” Gaara asked her.

“We will report nothing, at least until I figure out what he’s up to.” She said looking up at him.

Gaara regarded her solemnly, then nodded.

Gaara walked Sakura back to her house after they gave their dummy report to the Kazekage.

Sakura was on her bed reading when Sasori came back into her room. “Get your gear together, we’re leaving on a training mission as soon as you're packed.”

Before Sakura could blink he had left again. She was waiting for him by the gate, Gaara frowning beside her.

“When will you be back?” He asked her.

“I don’t know , he didn’t say.” She bit her nail on her left hand.

Sasori did this sometimes but there seemed to be an urgency in his voice that wasn’t usually there and she wondered why.

“Did he tell you where you were going?” Gaara asked.

“No, and it’s none of your business.” Sasori said sharply from behind them. 

Sakura and Gaara whirled around to see Sasori in his Jounin uniform, full gear and large backpack on his back.

“How long will we be gone Sasori Kun?” Sakura asked for Gaara’s benefit.

“A long time.” He said and started walking toward the front gate.

“Please Uncle. How long?” Gaara called to him before Sakura could follow.

Sasori sighed and walked back, it wasn’t the kid’s fault…”A few months Gaara. Send your hawk with any letters you wish to write to her, they will find her.”

Gaara blinked. This was serious. His Uncle was being...kind and understanding. He was taking Sakura from him for a few months!

“No, please let me come with you.” Gaara asked.

Sakura looked back and forth between the two men in her life biting her bottom lip.

“You can’t Gaara. I’m doing this to protect her. Now go. Keep Suna safe until she comes back.” Sasori waved him off, grabbed Sakura’s hand and pulled her through the gates of Suna.

Gaara turned back to the village after Sasori and Sakura disappeared over the second rise of the dune. His feet dragged as he walked back to his room. He laid his head down on his pillow and inhaled. It smelled like her, like Sakura and he moaned. Three months...he wouldn’t see her for three months…

Rasa stood on the roof of the Kazekage’s office and looked out over the desert. So, his brother was taking his student out into the desert for an extended training trip...without asking for leave, without telling him…’What are you up to Sasori?’ Rasa wondered.

“Sasori Kun.” Sakura spoke his name after half a day's silence.

“Hm” He grunted at her.

“Where are we going?” She asked him now that they were alone.

“Everywhere.” He tossed a scroll over his shoulder as they walked over the sand. 

Sakura caught the scroll and looked at it’s fastening. It had a gold clip with a scorpion stamped into it, a seal and a blood pin.

“You will finish this and keep it as your own. You will make another of it’s kind for me but I want you to have the original. Think of it as...an heirloom.” He said without turning around to look at her.

“An heirloom?” Sakura’s steps faltered.

“Sasori Kun, are you...why are you giving this to me?” She asked him, her grip tightening on the scroll in her hand.

Sasori stopped and turned to her then. “I won’t always be around, I trust you to keep my secrets safe.” He turned before she could say anything and continued walking.

‘I won’t always be around’, he just said. The words struck her hard in the heart. Was he leaving? Was he leaving her? Was it because of that woman, that Konan? Jealousy burned behind her eyes.

“Sasori Kun, tell me. What has happened. I know something has changed. What is it? If you leave, I’ll go with you.” She quickened her steps to walk alongside him.

“No.” He said, eye ahead, jaw clenched. “You can not follow me where I’m going. I’m making sure you have everything you need before I go, you will want for nothing, you’re strong already, there is little left I can teach you.”

Sakura looked back down at the scroll in her hand.

“It’s a map. I started it when I was six, when I made my first safe house...to escape my reality. There are twelve others on it already, we will be going to each one, sealing it with your blood in addition to my own that already exists in the seal so you may use them if you wish, if they are needed, they are yours now too.”

He had only taken her to six of the twelve listed on the map in her hand and he was telling her there were more?

“How many, how many safe houses do you have Sasori Kun?” She asked the same question he had refused to answer those many years ago.

“One hundred.” He turned to smirk at her drop jawed expression. “Each one a little different than the others with special properties in or around it’s location, and each one has only ever been inhabited by me, until now. Hurry dear, we have a lot of ground to cover in three months.”

“My birthday.” She just realized. “I’m not going to be home for our birthday.”

“It can’t be helped.” Sasori quickened his pace.

They made it to the first unmarked house before nightfall on the second day. It was a huge hollowed out tree trunk. Sakura followed Sasori up the side of the massive trunk and dropped down beside him inside the hollow as he felt around the inner base. 

He took her hand in his, “Do you feel the latch?” He asked her.

“Yes.”

“Bite your thumb and place it over the seal in the latch.” He bit his thumb and they placed their hands on the latch together and the door popped open.

Sasori pulled the trap door up and walked down the invisible stone stairs into the safe house. Sakura followed.

“Mark it on the map. I will start dinner.” Sasori motioned to a table in the far corner against a wall lined with little glass jars, skulls and other small bones mixed with larger bones that appeared human in nature.

Sakura stumbled across the room and pulled the chair from underneath the table, dusted it off and sat. She blew the dust off of the table, pressed her finger to the pin prick under the scorpion’s tail of the scroll’s clasp and the seal broke open for her unfurling automatically to lay flat before her on the table.

She looked up to find Sasori watching her. He turned away from her when their eyes met to fill the pot he had just cleaned with water from the pool at the other end of the underground room.

“My blood was already in the seal.” She spoke quietly, the silence of the stone room was almost deafening, eerie.

“I had always meant to give that to you.” He turned back to fill the pot.

He had planned this, when...when he had started planning on leaving her? From the beginning? No, impossible, when? She turned back to the open scroll and gasped. There were little red dots, twelve like he had said one in every nation, even in land’s unclaimed by the shinobi world. She looked back up at her mentor, her master and marveled anew at the man.

This was special, this meant something but the feeling of pride at being trusted with something so private so important was immensely overshadowed with worry. Why, why was he showing her now, why was he taking the time to take her to each one, have her seal her blood into each individual seal…’Because he is leaving you’, the little voice in the back of her head said, ‘This is his final gift to you’.

Sakura pulled a red pen from her pouch and marked the safe house’s location on the map before her and rolled the scroll back up and replaced the seal locking it before putting it in her pouch alongside her puppet scroll. She sat back in the chair and looked around the room. There was a door in the corner, she rose from her seat and walked to the door, opened it and peered inside.

Sasori had started a small smokeless fire, watching her out of the corner of his eye. He hadn’t told her, it wasn’t finished, would she be upset? He followed her into the room.

There were three work tables, each with different puppet parts on them in different stages of development. She ran her fingers over the main form, it was slight in nature, petite and made of fine wood grain. She noted the seals running up and down the torso, the chest and the rib cage.

Sasori watched as she moved to the head. Green glass eyes looked up at her, green...like the color of Spring but not quite like her own.

“The eyes aren’t right, I know. It is impossible to replicate some things without using the original as the husk.” He said from the doorway.

“It’s you.” He told her.

Sakura’s eyes widened and looked back at the incomplete puppet on the table. “Me?” She picked up one of the hands, her hand, for it most certainly was, he had even carved the small scar in above her middle finger. She held her left hand up and compared the two. They looked almost exactly alike. She turned back to the man in the doorway. 

“You’re making a puppet that looks like me out of wood?” She was surprised.

“Would you prefer I kill you and make it out of the original?” He smirked at her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, “You promised you wouldn’t ever do that.”

“No, I said I would only do that if you ever tried to leave me.” He corrected.

“You’re leaving me though, aren’t you?” She said quietly.

“Does that mean I can in turn, make a puppet out of you?” She smiled at him.

Sasori’s heart jumped in his chest, she was perfect. She was just like him, she was his, she was dangerous.

“You have a few more years before you can hope to take me on dear.” He said in his normal arrogant tone but he knew...if it came to a real battle, she might just win...it thrilled him.

“Perhaps.” She hummed as she ran her fingers along the arm of the puppet on the table and looked up at him. “Why?”

“So you will always be with me.” He turned and walked out of the room, he couldn’t look at her anymore, standing there beside the pieces of the puppet that would be her one day.

Sakura looked at the empty doorway, then back at the puppet pieces. She ran her fingers lightly over the chest of the puppet her. It had breasts, only they were larger than her own, she smirked, he was making her older in her puppet form. She placed her hand over where her heart would be, if it were real. 

Licking her lips nervously she pulled one of the paper seals she had made on her last trip to Konoha with Naruto from her pouch and lifted the chest compartment of the puppet where the chakra veins would be when it was completed, infused the seal with as much of her chakra as she could and set the seal along the wall of the cavity, sealing it in place. She shut the compartment quickly and walked out of the room to join Sasori for dinner.

‘Now, I will always be with you.’ She smirked as she sat down beside him to watch their dinner cook.


	23. Chapter 23

Three weeks had passed before his first letter came. Sakura wondered what had made him wait so long to write her. 

She sat at the table of the safehouse on Moon Island. They had slipped ashore under the darkened gaze of the new moon, that was the only way to get to that safehouse Sasori had explained to her, otherwise they would be seen.

She had asked him why there, why put a safehouse on such a small island where it was near impossible to get to, he had told her that is what made it the perfect place. If it was near impossible for them to get to it, the same would be said for others.

“This land is ruled by a King, not a Daimyo, which makes it that much safer for us, there are no resident shinobi here.” He had told her.

Gaara’s letter lay on the table in front of her, his neat small strokes looked up at her from the scroll. He had sealed it with his blood. ‘It must be a family tendency’, she mused. Sasori sealed everything with his blood, her blood and now Gaara had done it. Perhaps it was environmental. She wondered briefly how they sealed things in Konoha. She hadn’t seen Naruto use any blood seals, only regular seals.

When she had asked Sasori his opinion he had shrugged and told her simply, “Blood suits us.”, that was true she supposed and didn’t argue.

Gaara’s letter started off light but turned more and more frantic as she read further on and ended with a desperate plea for her to return to him. She swallowed. It had been the new moon last night. He had spent the full moon alone, without her. He had gone into the desert he had written, he had wanted to distance himself from Suna, from his people. He hadn’t trusted himself, Shukaku, to behave without her there to help calm him. 

His words had been written frantically, his plea for her to return to him broken up into several columns of almost missmatched undefinable characters, his pencil had broken several times she could see the indent on the paper, the smudges, the erratic thoughts in his head just like the erratic forming of the characters on the paper, he was losing it.

She felt terribly guilty but she knew this day had to come, they couldn’t be attached by the hand forever. This is what Sasori had been trying to prepare them for, both of them she realized. Maybe this trip was a good idea, for more than one reason, for all of them.

Sakura looked around the small room. This house was much smaller than the others. Being on an island there was little room to build up or around, only down. The island was built on volcanic rock, the foundation that had formed the island. Little pockets could be found in the walls that led to nowhere, serving as storage rooms or had shelves built into them. This had been one of his first safehouses he had told her.

He was down two floors, organizing things, he had said, leaving her to read her letter in peace. She didn’t know if it was kindness or indifference...it didn’t really matter she supposed.

She ran her hands through her hair. They had been to over thirty safehouses so far. Some of them were huge, laid out underground like labyrinths with labs, storage rooms the size of their home back in Suna, underground lakes and forests. It amazed her. Some were small, only one or two rooms, or one slightly larger room with nothing in them but dusty bags, scrolls and kitchenware.

By looking at the map she could tell they were working their way along the bottom of the known world and wondered what the little markings were in the uninhabited, unclaimed sections of the map. It was odd to her that these lands would be unclaimed. Wasn’t it in human nature to claim and conquer, to invade and populate? She tapped her finger on the land to the west of the Gulf of Wind. It was sectioned off on the map as though there were boundaries, countries but there were no names and she knew not of any lands in that direction, but she saw the little red dots, he had bases there.

“We’re going in a circle.” She said to herself.

“Then why did we skip The Land of Fire?” She had wondered that when they had first set out on this trip.

They had gone to Noodle, Ship, Jungle and Rivers, but had taken a ship to Tea on the border of Fire and Tea, avoiding the clearly marked safehouses in Fire.

She counted the dots in Fire. Three. There had to be more than just three of them, Fire was vast. She was sure Sasori had his reasons, he always did. She trusted him to tell her if she needed to know. He had told her he was taking her to all of them, she would be patient.

Her mind wandered back to the puppet he was making of her. The eyes weren’t right, no. She had heard the disappointment in his voice when he had said that. The hair, that would be another thing that would be impossible to replicate. 

Her hands rose without a conscious thought and pulled the elastic from it. She fingers the ends, she had just washed it the night before. It was long, she had wanted to cut it for several months now but Gaara had stopped her each time. He liked it long. She did too but this was important. Picking up her eleastic she tied her hair up at the base of her neck, finger coming it as evenly as possible and pulled her tanto from her medic pouch.

The blade was sharp, her stroke quick. There was a lightness to her head she had never felt before. She looked down at her hand, her ponytail was long. Sakura tied it up and sealed it into a scroll. 

“What have you done girl?” Sasori’s voice was harsh with anger.

She turned to him, her short hair falling into her face.

“Here.” She held the scroll out to him.

“What is this?” He eyes her chin length hair with displeasure taking the scroll from her hands.

“You will not be able to replicate my hair for your puppet, so I cut my hair. The eyes will not be real, but the hair can be. It will grow back.” She fingered her short locks with a small grimace.

Sasori opened his mouth but no words came out. He looked down at the scroll in his hands and then back up to her face.

“Does it look terrible Sasori Kun?” She ran her fingers through her hair surprised at the lightness, that her fingers no longer continued on through her formerly long locks.

“Yes, you look horrible with short hair.” He scowled at her moving closer to stand before her.

“It’s uneven.” He tugged on the left side of her head.

“Sit. I will fix it.” He motioned for her to sit and picked up a pair of scissors from his work bench.

He lifted her chin and his eyes hardened. “She isn’t a replacement for you.” He said evenly.

‘She’, could be the puppet, or the woman Konan, Sakura wasn’t sure which one he was referring to.

His hands were swift and agile, gentle and soft as he evened her hair out for her. He kept it long in the front and shorter in the back. When he was done he let his hands rest on her shoulders.

“Do not cut your hair again, for me or for anyone else.” He almost growled at her.

“Why?” She didn’t understand.

“It is your strength.” He hissed and pushed her away from himself, turned and walked out of the room leaving her alone again.

They left Moon the next night under the cover of the barely waxing moon.

Gaara was waiting impatiently by the front gates. Her letter said she would be returning today. He tapped his foot against the muted sand at his feet. Little whirls of desert sand rose and fell around him. 

The guards at the gate watched the young lord nervously, they watched as the sand moved around his feet, up around his knees to fall back down to the ground over and over again as the Prince paced back and forth in front of the gate. Since the Princess had left Suna with the Kazekage’s brother the young man had been short tempered, reclusive and erratic. 

There was a nervous energy that ran through the village as they waited for the Angel of Suna to return, only she could calm the Prince and keep the demon inside from reeking its havoc.

Gaara had only taken one mission since Sakura had left over four months ago. It had been a disaster. He had two targets, it was always assasination, they rarely did anything else, but he hadn’t stopped with the two targets...he had lost control of Shukaku and his bloodlust and had wiped the entire village. The Kazekage had sent word to Sasori demanding he bring Sakura home but of course Sasori had ignored him. 

Gaara had written Sakura when he had returned to Suna begging her to come home, that he needed her, but Sasori had responded with a short note in place of Sakura saying he must learn to control the one tail without her help. Gaara had been furious and had spent the next week alone in the desert venting his frustration.

The two guards at the gate exchanged nervous glances as they continued to watch Gaara pace back and forth, he was mumbling to himself now, tugging at the sides of his hair looking frantically out toward the desert every two seconds.

Gaara felt her chakra moving slowly toward the village a mile out. His eyes glowed yellow and his sand rose up around him in a whirl and he disappeared. The guards looked out over the dunes and saw the young lord reappear in a flurry of sand, saw a pink head disappear in a flurry of sand and then a red head pop up over the last rise of dune outside of the village, the last barrier between Suna and the void.

“Thank kami the Princess is home.” One guard said to the other who was also sighing in relief.

They smiled at one another. “It will be nice when they are finally old enough to be married and we won’t have to worry about him losing control anymore.”

“Excuse me?” Sasori had come up to the gate while they were talking.

“I said it will be nice to not worry about the young lord losing control of his tailed beast once he and the Princess are married.” The second guard smiled and bowed low to Sasori who was frowning.

“Sakura will not be marrying Gaara.” He ignored the open mouthed expressions of the guards and continued on toward their house.

“You’re choking me Gaara.” Sakura laughed as her best friend nearly suffocated her with affection in the form of squeezing the stuffing out of her.

“I missed you so much, you were gone so long,” Words spilled from Gaara’s lips and he didn’t even care, he wasn’t even embarrassed.

“I missed you too Gaara Kun.” Sakura whispered softly into his neck.

“You’re taller.” She pulled away from him and looked up at him.

“Sakura!” He gasped, he had finally gotten a good look at her.

“You’re hair.” He reached out and turned her around by the shoulders, “Where is the rest of your hair!” He was mad.

“Um, I cut it. It was hot.” She lied.

Gaara growled.

“It will grow back.” She said, her hands on her hips daring him to yell at her.

“Okay.” He bit out in between his teeth, he tried to calm himself, she had just gotten back.

“Why did you cut it?” He asked, reaching for her again.

“It was too hot and it stuck to my skin in Rain and in the Island countries, it was annoying.” She lied again.

“Why did you stop writing to me?” He asked her, his hands still around her shoulders.

“We were busy in the last month, I didn’t have a lot of time. I brought you this though. I’m sorry I missed our birthday.” She handed him a little wrapped box.

“Later.” He pushed the box back into her hands. “I have something planned for us tonight.” He smiled at her and she nodded.

“I’m going to go take a shower and change my clothes. Want to have lunch together?” She asked, picking her bag up off of his bedroom floor.

“Yeah, and dinner. I’ll be over in what thirty minutes?” He asked her.

“Give me an hour?” She smiled at him.

“One hour.” He hugged her quickly and released her. 

He watched her jump to the sill of his window, look back at him once, then jump to the roof.

She had changed. She was different...but it didn’t seem like a bad difference, she wasn’t pushing him away...but something had happened on her trip with his Uncle, he wondered what. He would find out at lunch.

“Oh Princess! It’s so nice to have you back in the village! Welcome home dear! Princess! You’re hair! What in kami’s name have you done child?” The sweet bun vendor stared open mouthed at Sakura and Gaara as they stood before her stand.

“Uh, I cut it.” Sakura fingered her short locks while Gaara looked at her smugly crossing his arms over her chest.

The old woman opened and closed her mouth but Sakura narrowed her eyes and she studiously ignored her hair for a lighter topic.

“The young Prince missed you so much, moping about while your were gone doing kami knows what, my goodness dear you can’t leave your young man to fend for himself for such a long time, think of all the things that could have happened while you were gone dear, lunch is on the house, welcome back, welcome back!” The old woman beamed at Sakura who smiled back.

“It’s good to be home.” She admitted holding Gaara’s hand.

He had taken her hand and hadn’t let it go since he had met her at her bedroom door.

Ten minutes later the vendor handed them their bag and smiled again. “You know dear it’s none of my business, none at all but it might be wise to hurry it up with this one.”

“What?” Gaara asked, confused.

“You two need to hurry up and get married, I see the way some of those girls look at you young man.” The vendor waggled a finger at Gaara who had the blankest look on his face Sakura had ever seen.

Sakura put her free hand over her mouth as she giggled.

“You too missy! There are a number of young men that have an eye on you, there goes one now!” The old lady pointed across the small corner to a boy about their age who was indeed looking at Sakura.

Gaara’s hand rose in the air and a stream of sand shot out and tripped the boy. Sakura hit him on the arm.

“You can’t do that!” But she was laughing so he smiled and pretended not to hear her.

“See what I mean?” The old woman waggled her eyebrows at them and grinned.

“We are just friends, grandmother.” Sakura shook her head at the old woman she had grown very fond of over the years.

“Friends hum?” The old woman leaned forward and looked at their joined hands.

“I had a friend once, he turned into my husband a year later.” The old woman cackled as Sakura’s face turned red.

“Thank you for the food.” Sakura said quickly, dragging Gaara away from the stand before the woman could embarrass her even more.

Gaara couldn’t stop smiling. Sakura was home, they had a bag full of sweet buns and were headed for their favorite spot to eat together. Sakura hadn’t told the old woman she wouldn’t marry him, only that they were friends. He took that as a good sign. He honestly couldn’t think of anyone else for him to marry. She was the only one for him.

“Tell me what you did while you were out of the village, where did you go?” Gaara asked her as he handed her a sweet bun.

“Well, we traveled all over the map.” She laughed.

“That’s what took us so long. Sasori Kun hadn’t been to some of the places he wanted to take me for years and they were farther and much harder to get to than he remembered.” She took a bite of her bun and nearly moaned.

“Kami, I’ve missed these buns.” She smiled through her bite at him.

“I missed you Sakura.” Gaara said quietly, his hand reaching out for hers lacing their fingers together.

Sakura’s eyes softened. “I missed you too Gaara. I want you to know I heard. Sasori let me read the letter you sent about what happened on your mission. I wrote you back, but he wouldn’t let me send it. He told me you needed to learn how to deal with your circumstances on your own.”

“I’m sorry Gaara, that I wasn’t there to help you. If I had been here...maybe it wouldn’t have happened.” She wiped her other hand on her pant leg and took his hand in both of hers.

“We have to figure out how to keep Shukaku calm Gaara, you can’t lose control like that anymore. You’re going to be Kazekage soon.”

“My Father is still healthy, it will be a long time before I am Kazekage.” He muttered.

Shukaku was muttering in his head, distracting him from Sakura. He shook his head several times to quiet the beast. Wasn’t he pleased? Shouldn’t he be as happy as Gaara was that she was home now, right next to them? It seemed like nothing he did made the tanuki happy, nothing was ever enough for him.

“Gaara? Is Shukaku talking to you? What is he saying?” She asked him.

“He’s muttering, I can’t understand him.” Gaara said truthfully.

“I tried, I tried to do what I could to keep him calm while you were gone, but when three months came and went and the fourth month started and you still hadn’t returned, he lost it Sakura. I lost it. We...we need you here, with us...always.” He looked up at her holding her eyes with his sheer will power, with his desperation and need.

Sakura bit the inside of her lip. Sasori had talked to her on their trip about many things. One of those things was Gaara. He told her very specifically that she was not to marry him. That she needed to consider other options, even the Uchiha if she wanted. That had surprised her, and she had said as much but Sasori had explained it was so she would know what she really wanted.

‘In other words, so you can cross him off of your list’, she understood what Sasori was saying to her, she knew him better than anyone...

Like everything else he had taught her, he told her love was no different. ‘Do not limit yourself for comfort, obligation or familiarity.’ He didn’t want her to settle.

“Find someone you both respect and admire, love comes after or inbetween.” He had told her.

“What do you know of love?” She had asked, both teasing and curious.

He hadn’t answered her right away, he had looked out over the North Ocean, they had been in an uncharted land with no name.

“I have only ever loved one person.” He had finally said.

Jealousy had shot through her veins and her face had flushed.

“Who?” She had asked, but he had ignored her, refused to tell her and she had eventually stopped asking.

Sakura’s thoughts returned to her companion.

“I will always be with you Gaara, remember?” She lifted one of her hands and placed it over his heart.

“Sometimes it’s hard to remember when you’re not with me. That was the longest we have ever been apart.” He placed his hand over hers where it pressed flat against his chest.

“When you become Kazekage, you will need to take trips to other lands, you will have responsibilities. You will have to leave me to fulfill your duty to our village.” She reminded him gently.

“You’ll go with me.” He said flatly.

“And leave out home unprotected? I don’t think so.” She laughed.

“Temari and Kankuro…” He began.

“Are useless.” She said just as flatly as he had a moment ago.

“They aren’t that bad, we’re just exceptional.” He spoke the truth and they both knew it.

“Yes, but they aren’t good enough to run the village in your absence.” She reminded him and he had to agree with her, it was true.

“Your letters said your father was teaching you how to do the paperwork, you’ve been sitting in on the council meetings, speaking to some of the visiting shinobi and answering more of the casual diplomatic letters?” She changed the subject of them being together for something she considered more important.

“Yes, it’s boring. Much of it is pointless work. I can already tell I will need a good secretary.” He sighed remembering the hours he had spent sitting at the desk next to his Father writing pointless letter after pointless letter until his fingers hurt.

“I can see it now, a new form of torture, answering diplomatic letters for the Kazekage.” She laughed and Gaara smiled.

“It’s good Rasa is taking time to go over these things with you but Gaara I mean it, you need to find a peace marker, something for both you and Shikaku to agree on, a focal point if you will. You can’t lose control of him anymore. The council might strip you of your title, you’ll be too much of a wild card.” She pulled her hand gently from his and picked up another sticky roll, her other hand remained locked tight in his grasp.

“I will. I’m trying. I put in the paperwork for the next Jounin exchange.” He told her, cheerfully changing the subject.

“The Leaf has sent a medic Jounin, an academy teacher Jounin and a field Jounin so far. I requested an Anbu Jounin this time and we will be sending one of ours in turn. That will be interesting won’t it? I think the academy students will be pleased.” He picked up another bun and smiled at her.

“An Anbu Jounin? That will be interesting. We are that close now? The relationship between the villages is close enough to start exchanging Anbu ops?” She was skeptical and a little worried about who they would send.

“I wouldn’t have requested it otherwise.” He said and looked at her, eyes calm, serene, clearly pleased she was home again.

For the first time she saw him. She saw him for what he really was. He was the son of the Kazekage, the strongest most worthy of the three royal children. He was the next Kazekage and he was holding her hand. How was he not good enough for her in Sasori Kun’s eyes, and if Gaara wasn’t good enough for her...who did he think was?

“When is the exchange scheduled?” She asked him.

“One year from now. I sent a request for a trained seasoned vetran, we will be sending the same. I was thinking Baki would be good.” He smirked at her expression.

“You want to start a war?” She exploded into fits of laughter that reminded him of how they used to be, four year olds running around the manse trying to hit one another with pillows.

“Not yet.” He winked at her and she had to hold her sides in...Gaara winking...oh kami… it was too much for her.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year later...

Darkened eyes scanned the horizon. All he could see was sand. A small quirk of his lips, a mirage of pink. The desert did indeed play tricks on the mind, but he wondered if it was the desert or his own desires. She was young still, it wasn't the same as before. Age mattered now to him, he was nineteen and she was still only fourteen. ‘Soon to be fifteen’, the voice of Shisui said in the back of his mind as he ran toward Suna. His mind playing the meeting over in his head that had brought him here.

“It was a blatant massacre! She ruthlessly slayed the entire village, no one was left alive, not even the infants!” A faceless Konoha Anbu informed the Hokage.

“It was her mission and we are grateful she was there or you might be dead now too along with the rest of your team.” Itachi said evenly.

“She’s a monster!” The Anbu retorted.

“Enough.” Minato the Fourth Hokage placed his hands flat on his desk.

“Itachi, how is the rest of your team? Why are they not here with you?” Minato asked Itachi.

“They are getting cleared by the hospital Hokage Sama.” Itachi’s mouth twitched.

“Cleared? They weren’t injured?” Minato’s surprise was clear.

He had heard three teams of Iwa nin had attacked his Anbu team in transit from Konoha to the borders of Wind to assist in a village negotiation, only to come too late to find the negotiations hadn’t gone well and that Sakura had made a clean sweep of the village. As ordered by the Kazekage, if the negotiations failed.

“Sakura healed our team on site after saving their lives once, she saved them again from their injuries.” Itachi said, ignoring the look the other Anbu gave him from behind his mask.

“This was a Suna mission, we were asked to assist if needed. It looks as though they ended up assisting us in the end.” Minato nodded. “Dismissed.”

“Hokage Sama.” The other Anbu started to protest again.

“We have an alliance with the second strongest nation in the world, we each train our shinobi differently and have our own customs. Some of their methods may seem cruel to you but they are necessary. You do not know all the details. Yes that village had children in it, but they were not there by choice. That village ran human contraband with an unbreakable sealing jutsu placed inside of them. It was a disease and a cancer, she had to do a wipe of the village if the negotiations failed, to send a message to any others who might try to or are trading in the same fashion.” Minato said calmly but firmly.

‘It was also personal to her’, he said to himself clenching his teeth. He couldn’t blame her. He blamed himself for what she had had to become.

“Dismissed.”

The Anbu bowed and left but Itachi remained.

“Hokage Sama, I would like to be the Jounin Anbu to go to Suna for the next exchange.” Itachi requested.

Minato smiled. “You have already been requested by the Kazekage’s brother.”

Itachi was surprised. “Sasori of the Red Sand requested me personally?”

“Yes, be wary, that man is up to something. Our scouts tell us he took the Princess on a four month trek across both the known and unknown world for no apparent reason, but that man, he always has a reason.” Minato said, scratching his chin.

“Hn.”

“You’ll leave in the morning.” Minato said.

“Hn.”

Itachi ducked his head as a strong wind passed over him, his feet dug into the sand with chakra to keep himself upright. One mile out, he could see the gate from where he stood.

She could feel him as soon as he passed through the gates. His chakra signature was stronger now than it had been before and she wondered if he was suppressing it for her not to have felt him sooner. She smiled down at the burner in front of her, of course he was...damned Uchiha.

At Sasori’s request Sakura had been placed in charge of the poison and recovery department within the hospital. It allowed her time and space to refine her art without needless travel or interruption and the benefits to the village were unprecedented. 

In the mere six months she had been placed in the hospital countless Suna nin had been saved. While Suna had always based their strengths on their killing quality, the Kazekage was beginning to see the benefits of the medical aspect, the saving of lives aspect and what it would mean for the future of Suna.

“Sakura Sama, the Kazekage requests your presence. The Konoha Anbu has arrived and is waiting for you in the Kazekage’s office with Lord Sasori and Lord Gaara.” Komei, Sakura’s assistant peeked her head in her lab door and smiled adoringly at her.

Sakura sighed, she didn’t know she had been expected to attend the meeting or she would have worn her shinobi gear, as it was she was in a tee shirt and capris, her lab coat and a pair of inappropriate sandals.

“I’ll be right there. Make sure this doesn’t boil over while I’m gone Komei, time it for three mins then pull it from the heat. Do not touch your eyes, mouth or nose after you pull it, wash your hands immediately after it is pulled and set it to cool...or you’ll die and knowing these political meetings, I won’t be back in time to save you.” Sakura half joked with the wide eyed girl as she left her lab leaving Komei to look apprehensively at the burner and the beaker on top of it.

“Sorry I’m late but no one told me I was expected to be here.” She entered the Kazekage’s office without knocking, bowing or really apologizing at all.

Rasa’s eye twitched, the older she got the more impudent she seemed to be.

“Kankuro has already taken the Anbu to his quarters. ” Sasori told her, smirking at her comment.

“You’re here because you will be studying genjutsu with Itachi while he is here in accordance with the revised exchange guidelines.” Sasori handed her a small scroll which she opened and read quickly.

“But.” She started to protest, but was silenced quickly.

“This is why I requested him.” Sasori said flatly.

“Your training with the Uchiha starts tomorrow morning at sunrise. He will meet you at our usual training ground. Don’t be late.” Sasori turned to leave but Rasa stopped him.

“Sasori, a moment please. Gaara, Sakura, you may go.” 

Sakura looked back at Sasori as she left the office with Gaara. He didn’t look pleased at all and she wondered what was going on.

Weak winter sunlight leaked through the windows of the Kazekage’s office as the two brothers starred one another down. Sasori rolled his eyes, “If there’s nothing to say I’ll be going.”

“Sakura and Gaara will be engaged publicly on her fifthteenth birthday next month and court for a year. Then she will marry Gaara on her sixteenth birthday.” Rasa said bluntly for the first time in his life.

“No, she won’t.” Sasori turned to leave.

“Damn it Sasori, this is important. She must, she is the only one that can keep the damned beast in line so that Gaara can be who he is supposed to be, the Kazekage when I’m gone.” Rasa had thrown his usual cool out the window, it wouldn’t help him with his brother and he didn’t have any energy to waste on it when dealing with Sasori. He had to focus, stay alert, he had to win this argument, not for him, not for Gaara but for the village.

“A beast you put in him willingly. A beast you burdened not only him with but killed your wife with, burdened the village with and burdened Sakura with. Since you seem to have forgotten, Sakura is mine, not yours, not your son’s. She is my apprentice, my responsibility, my...mine. She will not marry anyone I do not approve of, and I do not approve of your one tailed son.” Sasori turned to leave but Rasa’s gold dust flew up around him and blocked his way.

“Rasa. You were the eldest, but you weren’t the strongest. Apparently your memory has grown weak in your old age. I was supposed to be Kazekage, the strongest of the brood is always the next in line. I chose to break tradition, I gave that position up to you, who were more politically ambitious, to you, who thrived on the spotlight, the attention that I never wanted, never needed…” Sasori turned to face his elder brother.

“Need I take the time to remind you brother, which is the stronger of the two of us again?” Sasori’s hand went to his scrolls along his belt, hoovered there, waiting for his brother’s answer.

“Who then? Who are you going to marry her to? Surely not the Uchiha?” Rasa demanded.

“I have not found anyone strong enough to marry her yet. She is strong, but she shouldn’t have to fight for the rest of her life. I want someone strong enough for the both of them, so she can choose whether to fight or not. I don’t want her to have to fight, obligated to fight.” He said simply and walked out of the room Rasa’s gold dust falling to the floor around his feet as he flared his chakra.

“Gaara is strong enough for the both of them.” Rasa mumbled, but even as the words left his mouth, he knew they weren’t true, he was only fooling himself.

The black eye of a single crow watched the Kazekage take his seat at his desk and begin the tedious process of paperwork. It ruffled its feathers, looked off to the east flying to the window sill of the next building where a pink haired girl measured out clear liquids into individual beakers and set them to boil.

“Damn it.” Sakura stuck her cut thumb into her mouth to keep the blood from dripping into her beakers. One of the glass tops had been chipped and she hadn’t noticed in her haste to measure the liquid before it cooled.

Moving her beakers to the side and lowering the heat she withdrew the injured digit from her mouth and watched as blood welled up from the cut, over her joint to fall onto the counter top. ‘A curious thing blood’, she mused as she watched one more drop, then two fall and splatter onto the white counter.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw sand accumulating under the door to her lab and smiled.

“Hey Gaara, how’s paperwork going?” 

Gaara had taken over almost all of the secretarial duties for his father in the last year as well as being his proxy to all of the council meetings and hearings.

“Horribly boring. Sometimes I wish Shukaku would rampage so I wouldn’t have to sit through another five hour meeting about the desert’s ecosystem and how it will affect the future of Suna, or about the number of ramen stands in the market...who cares how many ramen stands are in the market except Naruto when he visits!” Gaara leaned against the counter and watched her blood drip down her thumb.

Sakura’s finger on her uninjured hand glowed green at the tip and she ran it over the cut on her thumb. They both watched as her skin knit together and the cut closed leaving only a thin line of blood behind.

Gaara took her hand and moved her thumb back and forth, then stuck it in his mouth sucking the blood from her skin and releasing it with a small pop. Sakura wrinkled her nose at him.

“I’ll never understand your taste for blood.” She wiped her wet thumb on her shirt and turned back to her beakers.

“It’s just your blood that tastes good to me.” He was still looking at her thumb as though he wanted to taste her again.

“That’s weird Gaara.” She knew she ought to be more disgusted but the truth was, it just didn’t bother her that much. It was just another one of his quirks to her.

“How much longer do you have in the lab today. I wanted to maybe grab some dinner before the reps from Iwa arrive.” He picked up her tray of poisons and began to shift through them.

A slim hand snaked up his arm and took the tray from him placing it back on the counter where it belonged.

“You can’t poison them, they’ll know it is one of mine and it will start a war. Things are already touchy with those block heads as it is, you know they never forgave us after the last war...even though it was Kumo who left them high and dry.” She muttered as she measured out the drops of opium into three different pieces of rice paper and set them to hang over a different heat lamp.

“They would blame Uncle, not you. Even though you know as much about poisons as he does, he is still known as the best Poison’s Master in the world right now, where as you got your name from the blood you spilled, more than me I might add.” He grinned at her, a touch of yellow in his eyes as Shukaku showed his appreciation for her blood lust.

“That’s only because the villages were found during a full moon, there apeared to be more blood than there was, and it is a stupid name, Red Moon. Ridiculous.” She scoffed.

“Would you prefer Angel of Suna?” He teased, he knew she hated that one even more.

“No, I want one cool, like yours or Sasori Kun’s. Something more fitting to my personality.” She complained.

“I think Red Moon is pretty accurate.” He said picking up one of her more humane poisons.

“Can I have this one?” He held up a small greenish vial.

“My chakra drain? Why?” She asked curiously.

“In case the meeting doesn’t go well. I don’t want to kill them, as you say, and start another war.” He slipped the poison into his pocket at her nod.

“Even though you’re the one that killed three of their teams in that village when the Uchiha stumbled upon you.” Gaara murmured.

“I have a few more things to do before I can leave if I start my genjutsu training with the Uchiha tomorrow.” She sighed ignoring his taunt.

She was actually surprised he hadn’t said something about or to the Uchiha in front of his father earlier in the Kazekage’s office, or first thing when he had come to her in her lab.

“That should be interesting.” Gaara said casually, making her hands still over her rice paper.

“That’s it?” Her lips twitched.

“What?” Gaara gave her a look of such offended innocence she laughed out loud.

“I’m trying.” His cheeks blushed a tender pink.

“Thanks Gaara.” She hugged him then took her rice paper and put it back in it’s drawer.

“You know no one can take your place right?” She smiled at him and took two more bottles from her left shelf and emptied them into a bowl.

“I know and soon it won’t even be an issue who teaches you what, or who you talk to.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her head and kissed the back of her neck.

Her hair had grown considerably since she had cut it a little over a year ago. It wasn’t as long as it had been but Gaara was pleased it was growing back quickly. It was long enough for him to twist it up in his hand and tug on it playfully.

“What do you mean?” She asked him without looking at him, concentrating on her task before her.

“We’re getting older is all. Father turned down the last three proposals for you. He thinks Iwa will be coming with another one tonight but they can hold their breath and choke on it as far as he is concerned. He’s told everyone you’re marrying me so they stop making offers, but it hasn’t seemed to work.” He watched her out of the corner of his eye.

Sakura nodded, she had known the Kazekage had been telling people for years that she and Gaara were betrothed unofficially, but Sasori had assured her she need not marry anyone she didn’t want to or before she was ready to get married so it didn’t bother her. She stood by what she had said when they were kids. She wasn’t marrying anyone, and if Sasori was fine with it, she was too.

Gaara was pleased when she hadn't agreed or protested his claim on her. “Do you have anything for a headache Sakura or can you do that glowy thingy and get rid of it for me?”

“Give me a sec.” She murmured, throwing two pin tips of sage into each beaker and shifted the weight of the flame to light.

“Come here.” She reached her hands out to him, he ducked his head and pressed his forehead up against hers and closed his eyes.

A light green flowed from her fingers on either side of his temples, she rubbed her chakra into the sides of his head with little circular motions making him hum in enjoyment at her touch.

“All set Gaara.” She whispered and he opened his eyes.

They stood there for a moment then parted reluctantly, she blushed and he grinned.

“I’ll be back in an hour, or an hour and a half to grab you for dinner?” He asked, her wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Yeah, I’m starving, make it an hour.” She turned in his arms back to her counter, he kissed the top of her head and left her lab under the careful eye of the crow who had remained on the sill of her lab window even after he had left to watch the pink haired girl finish her work.

Only when the red headed boy returned to walk the girl to dinner did the crow leave, spreading its wings to glide over the Suna market back to its rooms in the VIP housing.

Uchiha Itachi sat on the balcony of his borrowed room looking out over the market as the sun was setting in the Western sky. His sharingan followed the Anbu who jumped from roof to roof looking side to side, every now and then one would turn a masked face to meet his eyes only to look away just as quickly once they realized his sharingan was activated.

‘One year’, Minato had told him he would be here, like all the Jounin before him. ‘One year’, to convince Sakura Konoha had more to offer her than Suna. Minato wanted his daughter to come home, wanted Naruto to have his sister. A one year mission S-Rank classified for the Hokage. This was going to be harder than the Hokage thought.

Fugaku had been less than pleased his eldest son and heir had been chosen but had acquiesced after a short meeting with Minato. Classified Minato said, Anbu, Minato whispered. For Konoha, he shook Fugaku’s hand. 

To Itachi, he had told him the truth. Sakura was the daughter Kushina and he had never thought they would see again, the sister they had never told Naruto he had. 

“Please.” Minato had said with imploring blue eyes, “Convince her, talk to her, tell her she needs to come home, to Konoha.” Itachi had left the next day.

The Uchiha clan owed Minato much, because of him their clan was whole, alive and thriving. Not too long ago there had been unrest in the village. A masked man had come in search of Kushina, the nine tails jinchuriki, he had the mangekyo sharingan eye and had threatened to pull the nine tails from Kushina. Minato alone had stopped the man before he could pull the beast from her.

Minato stepped out from the crowd and quelled the gossip, the conjecture put forth by the council member Danzo that the Uchiha were to blame, that as a clan they had planned it as a way to take control of Konoha. Minato stood behind the Uchiha of Konoha and disputed that claim, effectively quelling a revolt before it could even take foot. He alone reminded the village of the bravery and the sacrifices the clan had made for Konoha in the last two wars.

Yes. The Uchiha clan owed Minato much. 

Itachi smiled as he played back every moment, every interaction he had had with the Princess since they had first met. She was different than anyone he had ever met. She wasn’t like those fangirls back in Konoha that followed him around, his brother and Shisui. She was proud, intelligent, hard working and snarky. His mouth twitched. She wasn’t afraid to tell him off...and she was beautiful. He was looking forward to her genjutsu lessons.

Gaara watched the Iwa nin walk into the conference room one at a time. There were five in total, each one more stiff and full of themselves than the last one to enter the room, he wasn’t impressed. Each member of the council stood before their chair, Gaara included, bowed and sat offering the Iwa representatives their greetings and introductions.

The meeting was brief, a prelude to the real meeting in the morning, this was just ceremony. Tea was drunk, voices were heard. Small claims of battle were expressed. It was a political nicety which bored Gaara beyond belief but he kept his composure, his face stoic and politely interested. It was a game Sakura had told him, like when they were kids and they played the game ‘Owl’, you had to sit and see who could go the longest without blinking. That’s what politics are, she had teased him. She wasn’t wrong.

Many curious glances were cast his way, only one hostile. Gaara turned his head to smile in the face of this evident hostility, amused to find a flush of anger rising from the neck to the cheeks of the young man. 

“What are you smiling at huh?” The blonde grumbled, brow furrowed as he continued to glare at Gaara.

“Deidara, that’s enough. Please excuse my student, this is his first political mission.” The Tsuchikage inclined his head to Rasa who waved his hand dismissing it.

“I have four headstrong children, each one more stubborn and willful than the last right down to my youngest and most accomplished, Sakura.” Rasa smiled indulgently at Deidara who scoffed once more at Gaara but whose ears perked up at the sound of Sakura’s name.

Gaara narrowed his eyes at the blonde suddenly realizing why he was glaring at him.

‘So, this is what Iwa offers?’, Shukaku chortled in Gaara’s head, lifting his head up to smell the air.

‘I’m not impressed.’ Shukaku put his head down and closed his eyes again.

‘Neither am I’, Gaara agreed with his tanuki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This almost didn't make it out... I don't know where to go after this.


	25. Chapter 25

“You’re not concentrating, Sakura. Again.” Itachi’s voice came to her from the dark, smooth, calm...incredibly annoying.

“This is ridiculous! These are lessons and you cast a level 6 genjutsu on me and are taunting me with it? You know I can’t break it!” She growled at him.

“I don’t know that. If I knew that I wouldn’t have cast it. It would be counter productive.” He teased her.

“I hate you.” She willed herself to stand under the pressure of the genjutsu.

“I know how strong you are, Sakura. I know you can do this. We have a year together. Let’s get the black and white out of the way so we can enjoy each other’s company.” He was mocking her now, she knew it.

“I’m going to kill you.” She stood straight, her back locked in place, her hands in front of her chest, she made the hand signs, cleared her head, and took a deep breath.

“Release.”

Nothing happened.

“You’re not trying hard enough Sakura.” The disappointment was clear in his voice and it infuriated her.

A weight was placed over her shoulders pushing her down, her back was bending, breaking, she gasped out and tried to suck air back into her aching lungs but no air came...she was suffocating.

“Ita. Itachi. Damn it.” She gasped out.

“Do it Sakura. Break it!” Itachi commanded.

“Kai! Kai! Kai!” She screamed but nothing happened.

“Do it!” Itachi’s voice could be heard but it was far away. She was falling.

“That’s enough for today I think.” Itachi knelt down in the sand by her limp body, breaking his genjutsu.

“Sit up.” He helped her to sit up and pressed a bottle of water into her hands.

Sakura opened her eyes, she felt sick and nauseous. Sweat coated her palms and she rubbed them quickly on her pants to grip the bottle of water.

“That was terrible.” She moaned.

“It was, you’ll have to try harder next time. I admit I thought you would be able to break that. It was a rather advanced genjutsu though.” He took pity on her only because he knew it would infuriate her.

“I’ll break it next time.” She growled, her ears red with fury, her teeth grinding.

“Good. I’d hate to have to write home to Minato Sama and tell him how weak you are in genjutsu.” He said absently as he packed up his things from their lesson that morning.

“I’m not weak.” She stood up.

To her credit she didn’t shake, she didn’t stumble and her eyes were focused. It was more than he could say for anyone else he had ever put under a level six genjutsu without warning before. She would do fine, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

“Prove it.” He threw her a thick scroll.

“I have my work at the academy for the rest of the week. Monday next, I expect you to have read that at least seven times, understand it, and to have put it to practical use by the time our lesson resumes. Let’s see you live up to the more admirable part of your reputation Sakura.” Itachi smiled at her.

“More admirable?” She looked from the scroll back up at him.

“Your intelligence, your wit, your cunning. Any idiot can kill, can bloody an enemy. A real shinobi, a great shinobi is smart, is clever, and is empathetic.” He turned and left her in a flurry of feathers.

“Empathetic?” She frowned at a black feather that had fallen at her feet.

Sakura picked the feather up and for a moment wondered if he had left it there on purpose hoping she would pick it up, she scoffed at her thoughts, of course he wouldn’t. She tucked the feather into her belt and walked back to the house she shared with Sasori to make him breakfast.

Sasori was sitting at their kitchen table when she entered. His eyes left the scroll he was reading to take in her sweaty appearance, her tight jaw and her quick rigid movements and smiled.

“How is the Uchiha’s lesson plan?” He asked casually.

“Annoying, he cast a level six genjutsu on me without so much as a good morning to me!”: She filled the coffee machine and pressed the green button, pulled the eggs and rice from the fridge and pantry.

“He must think highly of you. The Hokage assured me he would start you at a level three.” Sasori hummed his interest in her displeased noises, she was like a ruffled cat, or a rattle cobra at the moment.

“He is insufferable.” She cracked the eggs into the skillet and set the rice to cook in the cooker.

“He challenges you, that is good, it means he has something to teach you. You will have everything you need now.” He set his scroll down and rolled it up skillfully.

“Everything I need now?” She asked him, turning from the stove to look at him.

“I told you before, I won’t always be around, if I’m gone I want to know you are well taken care of, that you can take care of yourself.” In other words, he didn’t want to have to worry about her.

Sasori knew she knew...something, she was after all his student and while he hadn’t shared his spy network knowledge or his puppet sealing jutsu with her, he was sure she knew more than she let on. Their whole relationship was saying without saying, knowing without knowing and feeling without showing. It was complicated, it wasn’t healthy but it worked for them. 

She had done so well over the last year. Her position in the village would be solidified by the time he had to leave. Rasa wouldn’t be sending her out to risk her on the front lines if another war broke out, she was now too valuable at home in the hospital and he had further plans in place to ensure she never left the hospital. 

His proposal for a children’s wing had been passed and the financing for medical studies that she would lead had passed just last week. He hadn’t told her yet, it wasn’t time, but when the time came he knew it would be too good for her to pass up. Her place in Suna would be set. He had done everything in his power to ensure it.

She had the love and admiration of the villagers like no kage before her had. They called her their Angel. She was as essential to their happiness as water and he knew it. Her presence alone is what helped them sleep at night, his four month trek out of the village with her made that blaringly clear to not only him, but to Rasa. No doubt that is what pushed the man into being so bold as to tell him who his student was going to marry. It also meant Rasa knew he must tread carefully, any displeasure from the girl and the village would turn on him in an instant. 

Sasori smiled to himself. That part hadn’t been part of his plan but he was never the one to turn down events that turned in his favor, he was merely using circumstance to his advantage to ensure her happiness, and her safety after he left.

Sakura frowned at the eggs in the skillet and stabbed at the butter with the spatula in her hand.

“What do you want for your birthday Sakura?” Sasori asked her.

Sakura dropped the spatula and turned to stare at him. Not once, had Sasori asked her what she had wanted for her birthday. Sometimes he didn’t even bother giving her a birthday present at all. The only day he celebrated with her was the day after they had met. The day he killed her father and had taken her in to live with him.

Her bottom lip quivered. This was confirmation to all her fears. He was leaving her.

She turned back to the burner and shut it off, her head hanging over their eggs as she thought of her answer.

“Nothing.” 

She said, pulling the rice cooker to her and lifting the lid, scooping out rice into two bowls, placing an egg on top of each bowl and turning to the table, to him, with the bowls in hand.

“Nothing?” 

He asked her curiously.

There was one thing she wanted, but she could never say. It was too weak, too artificial in her mind...silly. She could tell her answer wasn’t enough for him. She knew he could see right through her denial, but she couldn’t tell him, she wouldn’t tell him, the only thing she had ever wanted, was just to be with him.

‘It’s her eyes’, he thought as he looked at her. ‘Her eyes give her away’, and he had to turn his head from her eyes, he couldn’t look at them anymore. He had given his word, to protect her, for her. A storm was coming like none had ever seen before and he was going to do whatever he could to make sure she came out of it alive.

The rumours were true, his network had told him so. The Akatsuki were collecting the tailed beasts. One day, they would come for Gaara, and she would be there to stand between him and them, between him and Gaara. He only hoped she would understand.

“Very well.” He tucked the rolled scroll in his belt and pulled the breakfast she had made in front of him.

They ate in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. 

Sasori rose and placed his dishes in the sink, turned and leaned back against the counter.

“The Uchiha can teach you more than genjutsu if you let him Sakura. Make sure you listen to him and learn from him, but don’t let that silky hair and smirking smile cloud your head, he still isn’t worthy of you, even if he is a better prospect than Gaara.” Sasori walked out of the room not bothering or caring for a response.

‘So, he did know about the gifts’, Sakura sighed and cleared the rest of the table, did the dishes and walked to her lab. She had work to do. She didn’t want to think about Sasori leaving her, the annoying yet handsome Uchiha or even Gaara right now. All she wanted was to work on her latest poison, one she had yet to find an antidote for.

Seven dead rats lay before, each one more traumatized than the last but all just as dead and lifeless as it’s fellow.

“Ugh.” She sat back in her lab chair and laid her head on her desk avoiding the rat tails.

“Still can’t find an antidote to your own poison?” Gaara spoke softly from behind her, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders.

“No.” She thumped her head on her desk making the rats jump.

Gaara chuckled, his hands tightening and rubbing over her neck and shoulders. Sakura melted into the desk and hummed her pleasure at his touch.

“You haven’t been sleeping well. I can tell. You have bags under your eyes.” He continued to rub her shoulders gently, pressing on her pressure points to relieve the tightness in her back and neck.

“I haven’t been sleeping very well either.” He continued when she didn’t respond.

“Come over tonight, sleep with me. It’s been so long, Sakura. I miss it, I miss you.” He whispered into the back of her neck.

“It’s not the same Gaara, we’re older now, remember?” How many times did she have to tell him…

“It doesn’t have to be like that. You seem to think I’m going to try something. What exactly do you think I’m going to do to you in your sleep, Sakura?” He was teasing her but he really did want to know, he had never done anything inappropriate, never made her feel uncomfortable, except that one time he kissed her a year ago but she hadn’t minded.

“I can’t sleep without you and it’s been months since you’ve spent the night with me. I barely sleep. Come on, it will be good for both of us.” He smoothed the hair from her shoulders and tucked it off to the side.

He was right. She was tired and she didn’t sleep well without him either. She had stopped sleeping with him regularly over a year ago after that kiss and only twice since then. Gaara had grown little black circles around his eyes since then, she had tried to ignore it. Every time she mentioned it to Sasori he told her that Gaara would get used to it. The truth was, she still missed him and she wanted to sleep with him as much as he did her. She hadn’t gotten used to it and doubted Gaara would too.

“Okay, but after Sasori goes to sleep. He doesn’t want me sleeping with you anymore.”

Gaara was pleased. She had never disobeyed Sasori for him before.

“Whatever you want Sakura, thank you.” He bent and kissed the top of her head.

“Now leave me, I need to figure out this antidote.” She reached back and patted his hand.

She could already feel her body relaxing in anticipation of a good night’s sleep tonight and resisted the urge to laugh.

Gaara left her to her poisons and antidotes, Shukaku was dancing around in his head, tail swishing back and forth in happy bliss.

The wind had picked up in the few hours she had spent in her lab after Gaara had left. Her hair whipped around her head as she walked down the familiar street of the Suna market toward her favorite curry stand. 

“Sakura Sama!” Komei was running down a side street, her hands waving back and forth in front of her trying to get Sakura’s attention.

“Yes Komei? What is it?” Sakura sighed. She had just left the hospital. She was hungry and wanted to eat.

“One of the representatives from Iwa injured themselves while training just now Sakura Sama, no one knows what to do with his...injury. Kazekage Sama sent me to find you, we need you back at the hospital right away!” Komei clutched the side of her chest, she was out of breath.

“Okay, well...get me a dish of curried liver and a side of plum sauce. I’ll go to the hospital now.” Sakura waved her hand toward the curry stand she had almost made it to before Komei had chased her down.

“Thank you Sakura Sama, of course Sakura Sama.” The girl panted, walking slowly to the curry stand to place Sakura’s order.

Rasa met her outside of the hospital room. “Sakura, I’m glad Komei found you so quickly. It seems one of the student’s the Lord Tsuchikage brought with him had a small accident. He has a particular kekkei genkai that is proving most difficult for our healers, would you take a look at him?”

“Of course.” Sakura pushed her way into the room shooing nurses and bystanders out as she went.

“Tsuchikage.” Sakura inclined her head to the shortest and one of the oldest little men she had ever seen before.

“You must be Sakura.” The Tsuchikage looked at her with narrowed old eyes, filled with speculation and interest.

“I am, if you will excuse me.” She walked past him to the blonde who was noisily writhing and moaning on the hospital bed.

“Lay still.” She commanded.

“It hurts damn it yeah, you try to lay still with your hand almost blown off huh?” His blue eyes glared at her then opened in surprise as he took in her pink hair.

“It’s you! You came? One of the nurses said you might not un, that you didn’t like people huh.” He grinned at her, his pain notwithstanding.

“I don’t, now sit still so I can see what you’ve done.” She grabbed his arm and laid it flat on the bed.

“It looks worse than it is but the mouth, that’s what hurts the most, it’s sensitive yeah, you know?” He watched her eyes widen at the sight of the mouth embedded in the palm of his hand.

“Unique kekkei genkai indeed.” She muttered to herself.

“So can you fix it? Everyone says how you’re this amazing healer or something but others say you’re a murderer and cold blooded killer who would rather kill me than heal me un.” He was grinning at her...it was annoying.

“You will remain quiet and only speak when I ask you a question, or I won’t heal you and you can sit here and rot.” She eyed him casually.

“You need to work on your bedside manner.” He muttered.

“I’m not a doctor. I’m the head of the poisons and recovery department, not the healing and surgery department.” She rolled her eyes at him.

“You can heal me though right?” He asked hopefully.

“Of course I can heal you, just do me a favor and stop talking okay.” She pulled his other hand to her and looked at it.

“How interesting.” She poked a finger at the lips of the unblemished hand and they parted to reveal a long swishing tongue.

“Ugh.” She dropped his hand and he laughed.

“Most women like it.” He winked at her.

“I’m Deidara by the way.” He was grinning at her again.

“I know.” She picked up his other hand.

“I need you to be quiet so I can concentrate, Deidara.” 

She moved her flow of chakra to her hands, took his injured hand between her two palms and pushed her healing chakra into his skin, into the mouth and over the tongue. There were severe burns on both hand and mouth. It seemed that the damage even extended to the teeth inside of the mouth. She had never healed teeth before but thought perhaps she ought to try this time given the circumstances.

Very slowly the skin began to heal. She removed the dead cells with her chakra replacing them with new ones. One of the lips on the mouth had been split as though it had been blown open. Pressing her finger to the side of the mouth she sealed the wound and healed the burn.

Thirty minutes later she removed her hands to reach for a cooling cloth one of the nurses had brought for her while she had been healing Deidara. Sakura wrapped his hand and pulled a bowl of cold water to his side table. Placing his hand in the bowl she looked up to find him staring at her in awe. For once, it seemed the blonde was speechless.

“Keep your hand in the cold water for the next few hours, do not unwrap it but you can take it out of the water once the tingling stops.” She wiped her hands on a clean towel and stepped away from his bed.

“I’ll come back and check on you in the morning. Do not use your kekkei genkai or any form of jutsu with that hand until I clear you to use it.” She turned to leave but he stopped her.

“Thank you Sakura Chan.” He smiled at her, not a grin, not a smirk, but a real smile. It was kind of sweet, so she smiled back.

“You’re welcome.” Sakura inclined her head to the Tsuchikage as she walked out the door.

Rasa had left after he was sure she would heal the boy and was nowhere to be seen as she exited the hospital. Komei hadn’t returned with her food and she wondered where the damn girl could be when she felt the familiar pull of sand at her feet and smiled.

“Gaara.” She turned and saw him leaning against the side of the hospital waiting for her. His hands were tucked into his pockets, his spiky red hair catching a soft shimmer in the setting sun.

“Sakura.” He smiled at her.

‘His smile is so much nicer than the Iwa nin’s’, she thought to herself.

“I found Komei in the market. She told me what happened. I have dinner for us in my room.” He held his arm out to her and she took it.

“I’m starved, let’s go.” She smiled as his sand rose up around them and they disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote an alternate chapter 25 but scrapped it. I hope you like this one. The other one was super lame.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little longer chapter than usual...

His fingers ran up and down her arm as he watched her sleep. The moon was high and cast mild shadows across their bed. ‘Their bed’, yes, he still thought of it as theirs. 

‘When can we finally make her ours boy?’, Shukaku asked him.

‘Soon’, Gaara hummed as his fingers trailed up her bare shoulder, up her neck and across her cheek.

‘Your father said she was ours, why are we waiting, she is here, in our bed, why can’t we have her now?’, The tanuki didn’t understand what the boy was waiting for. The girl had never protested his touch, allowed him to kiss her, hold her, she was theirs as far as the raccoon was concerned. There was no need to wait.

‘That isn’t how things work Shukaku, it would only push her away’, Gaara leaned over and ran his lips over her flushed cheek to her ear and kissed her softly at the base of her neck.

‘I don’t think it would. For all you know she is waiting for you to make a show of interest, waiting for you to show her what you want’, Shukaku growled low in the back of Gaara’s head.

‘Do you think so?’ Teal eyes wandered over Sakura’s bare skin. Her shirt was pulled off to the side in her sleep, it was a wide collared shirt, one of Sasori’s old shirts he noticed.

‘Yes’, Shukaku pushed the boy. ‘She is waiting for you to decide’, the tanuki purred at him.

‘Maybe’, Gaara’s fingers had found the hem of Sakura’s shirt under their covers and moved slowly up over her skin to just under her breasts.

Her lips parted and a small sigh escaped her lips. Gaara held his breath and watched her face. He should be sleeping, he should let her sleep but he wanted to, needed to...his hand fell away from her skin and he laid back, his head on the pillow beside hers.

‘Pathetic’, Shukaku ridiculed him.

‘I don’t want a warm body. I can get that from any girl in Suna. I want her to want what I want, to be together, more than friends, more than what we are now. If I push her, she’ll either kill me or run away.’ Gaara told the raccoon, and not for the first time.

‘Then sate our lust with another until she is ready’, Shukaku paced back and forth, back and forth.

‘I only want her’, Gaara closed his eyes and gathered Sakura in his arms and buried his face in her hair.

Gaara knew how the girls looked at him, he had several letters of his own with confessions of love. They were meaningless, they were nothing compared to Sakura. She was the only one that had been there for him, could be there for him...would be there. He only wanted her and if he did something so foolish as to sleep with someone else, she would never forgive him.

They had always been meant for one another, from the very beginning, his father had told him so, many times over the years. He told him that women don’t like to share and Sakura would be no different. He told him not to look anywhere else for physical comfort because she would know and it would push her away. His father had told him...there is only one for you and it is her.

Gaara knew his father had been loyal to his mother. His loyalty to her and her to him was a common topic of admiration in the village. The sweet bun stand proprietor had told Sakura and him the story of his mother and father one day when they had gone to the stand for food. His father’s one redeeming quality in Gaara’s eyes.

He wanted that.

Morning came much too soon for both of them.

“I need to go.” Sakura pulled her long sleeved shirt over her head as Gaara tied his pants up.

“Lunch?” He asked her hopefully as she ran her fingers through her hair but she was already shaking her head.

“I need to go to the workroom today. I have things there that can’t be kept at my lab. I’m determined to find an antidote to my poison.” She laced up the front of her shirt and threw her winter robe over her head to protect her against the cooler morning air.

“Dinner tomorrow night then...I have dinner with the Iwa reps tonight and a few of the more boring council members, attendance is mandatory.” He grimaced and he tied his little gourd of sand to his belt that she had given him for their last birthday.

Sakura flipped her hair up into a messy bun on top of her head and stuck the decorative sticks Gaara had given her into the middle to hold it in place.

“Your birthday is in a few weeks. Make sure you don’t take any missions this time or go on any four month treks across the world okay?” He smiled at her from the door.

“I promise.” She waved and jumped out the window, running fast to the gate.

Sasori stood beside the graves of their parents, hands stiff at his sides. ‘In loving memory’, the stone read. Sasori scoffed.

Rasa’s steps paused as he neared the graves of their parents. His brother rarely, if ever, came to visit the graves. He approached slowly and with care.

“Sasori.” Rasa inclined his head and stood beside his brother.

“Rasa.” Sasori acknowledged him without his usual disdain.

They were equals here, standing on the final resting place of their parents who were equal in death. The two brothers stood there side by side for several hours. Silence rolled listlessly around the graveyard over countless stones, each with a different name, few of them were marriage stones. There hadn’t been much time for romance during the last two wars and not all bodies could be recovered.

“We could always talk here, plainly, in front of the graves of our parents Sasori.” Rasa began.

“Hn.” Sasori grunted.

“Why isn’t Gaara good enough for Sakura, be honest, what is it that you want for her that he doesn’t have? I'll be honest too, I wanted her to marry him to protect the village from the demon I put inside of him yes at first. Now, I just want both of them to be happy. They would be happy together Sasori, surely you can see how much they care for one another.” Rasa turned to look at his brother.

Yes, they could always be honest in front of the graves of their parents. How can you be honest with someone else when you can’t be honest with yourself though. Sasori rolled his thoughts around his head.

“Gaara is a strong shinobi, he is brave and intelligent and he adores Sakura. I know all of this. Sakura loves him as he loves her but...I can’t. I can’t give my consent.” Sasori frowned at the graves before him.

He didn’t understand himself sometimes. Everything wasn’t black and white like he wished it would be. The lines weren’t drawn, nothing was defined when emotion was involved and that’s why he despised it so much...it was something he couldn’t control.

“I don’t understand.” Rasa said honestly.

Sasori clenched his fists. “Neither do I.” His voice was quiet, a whisper and it caught Rasa’s attention.

“You...it’s you...Sasori she’s…” ...but Rasa couldn’t quite bring himself to say it.

He looked at his younger brother in both disgust and curiosity. Sasori never loved anyone. Rasa growing up had thought that perhaps his brother was gay but there was no evidence of that either. He simply...existed. Rasa had come to accept that he would be the only one to carry on their line, so he had as many children as he could before…

“She’s mine.” His voice was firm, unyielding. “I’ve not touched her, she’s young, but she won’t always be. She is mine in a way no one else can be and...I am hers.” Sasori turned to look at his brother.

“Gaara can not have her.” 

Rasa stared open mouthed at his brother at a complete loss for words. He had just said not only that he loved the girl but that he claimed her. A part of him wanted to smile for his brother, for he had finally found someone to love but...the other part…

“I am Kazekage. It is a perfect match, Sasori.” Rasa stood firm.

Sasori sighed he had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. There was no need to argue, there were no more words. Chakra flowed to his fingers, strings fell to the ground and slithered across the sand attaching themselves to his brother.

“Let our parents be witnesses then, you never learned Rasa, never touch what’s mine.”

Rasa’s body moved on it’s own. His hand pulled a kunai from his pouch, his hands grasped the handle between both hands and moved the point over his chest.

“Sasori...wait...you wouldn’t dare….” Rasa tried but was unable to stop the inevitable…

Sasori flicked his middle finger, “Goodbye brother”.

The kunai plunged into Rasa’s heart, Rasa gasped for air, air that would never reach his blood, blood that would never reach his heart...he fell to the ground and Sasori released his strings. One bloodied hand reached out to clutch the hem of his brother's robes but fell limp over the top of their parent’s grave stone. Bloody finger trails marred the sand smooth surface of the graves.

“She was always meant to be mine.” Sasori looked down at the bleeding body of his brother, of the Kazekage.

Sasori walked away leaving Rasa to die alone. Rasa’s eyes lifted to the sky, his thoughts on his wife whom he hoped to see again soon. One black crow flew overhead. ‘How strange’, he thought. Some say crows are an omen of death. Blood bubbled up and over his lips as he laughed one last time.

Komei found her in her lab. She was grinding herbs in her mortar with her pestle. “Sakura Sama.” Komei said softly, waiting by the door, not sure if she should enter or not.

“What is it, Komei? I’m a little busy.” Sakura didn’t look up, she didn’t stop her grinding. She had forgotten a few things and had yet to make it to the cave.

Komei remained quiet, how could she tell her the Kazekage was dead, how could she tell her that her adopted father had committed suicide in front of the graves of his parents?

Sakura looked up when Komei had failed to answer her. She saw the lines of stress on the young girl's face and knew something terrible had happened.

“Tell me.” Sakura commanded, making Komei jump.

“The Kazekage...is dead.” Komei didn’t get to tell her anything else. Sakura blinked and then disappeared with a flicker of her lab coat.

She found him on the wall of the East gate. He was sitting with his legs over the side of the wall, his teal eyes staring out into the desert, his desert now. Sakura sat beside him and reached a hand out. He took it in his and gripped it tight.

“I should be sad.” His voice was soft.

“I should be angry.” He continued.

“What’s wrong with me, I can’t feel anything. He is dead and I can’t even cry. I can’t even…” Gaara turned his head into her shoulder.

“I feel like I should feel, something.” His lips moved against the fabric of her shirt.

“Shock.” Sakura said, knowing all too well it was what she was feeling as well.

“You’re in shock Gaara.” She moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“I was in a meeting with the council when word came. He was by their graves, his parent’s graves and, they said it was, they told me he had committed suicide” His voice trembled.

“Why?” He asked her.

“I don’t think it was suicide. Your father is not the kind of man to do such a thing.” She said firmly.

“Was.” Gaara whispered.

“Was.” Sakura whispered.

“Then who?” Gaara asked her, looking at her, pulling back from her embrace.

Sakura bit her lip. It could be anyone, the Iwa reps, the Tsuchikage, the Konoha Anbu Itachi Uchiha...anyone but...she bit her lip harder. ‘He wouldn’t’, she told herself. ‘He would for you’, she knew it.

“It could be anyone, everyone is suspect. You, me and even Sasori Kun. He was the Kazekage. Now you are Gaara.” She kissed him on his kanji.

“Where is my Uncle?”: Gaara asked her.

Sakura could feel Sasori, he was in the market. “In the market.”

Gaara nodded. “I need to speak with him, there are things that...need to be said, things that need to be done. I will tell Temari and Kankuro. Then I will come for you later, my night will be long but wait up for me please. I will need you now more than ever.” He kissed her, once, on the corner of her mouth disappearing into his sand.

Itachi watched his crow fly over the dunes East toward Konoha. The Hokage would know in a few hours that the Kazekage was dead and that Sasori had been witness to it. The tension was clear, he could feel that hum of different chakras moving throughout the village, every citizen was tense, every visitor wary. This was not a good situation, he wondered how Sakura was doing, was she a suspect?

Gaara released his teleportation jutsu around the corner of the market and stepped out into the street before Sasori who hadn’t even blinked at his appearance. He had been expected.

“You know.” Gaara wasn’t asking.

Sasori nodded.

“The council requests a meeting with us.” Gaara moved toward the Kazekage offices on the other side of the market.

“I’m sure they do, Kazekage Sama.” Sasori said.

Gaara turned sharply back to his Uncle but there was no sarcasm, no smirk on his lips and Gaara calmed himself.

The two redheads walked in silence toward the government buildings ignoring the looks of the civilians around them. The Anbu outside of the Kazekage’s office bowed low to Gaara.

“Kazekage Sama.” They said with respect as Sasori and Gaara entered the office where the rest of the council was waiting.

Gaara took his seat as Kazekage behind the desk, Sasori stood to his right looking bored.

“Your father is dead.” The oldest of the council spoke first.

“I am aware.” Gaara spoke evenly.

“We have taken all of the foreign visitors into custody…” Another council member began but was stopped when Gaara raised his hand for silence.

“On whose authority did you take such drastic actions.?” Gaara inquired with a steely eye.

“On the councils! It is imperative Gaara Sama that…” 

Gaara rose from his seat behind the desk of the Kazekage’s.

“Who is the Kazekage?” He asked them, his eye meeting each man individually, “Am not I?”

“Yes Kazekage Sama.” The council said as one.

“Then address me with my title. Or you will be punished.” Gaara sat back down at his desk, the mantle of his title falling over his shoulders in an invisible weight. He was...the Kazekage.

“I did not give orders for any foreign visitors to be detained, release them immediately with an apology from the council. No such orders are to be executed in my name, that is not how I will be running things. Only orders given by me will be followed through, executed or maintained. Is that understood?” Gaara asked the men before him who bowed to his authority.

“I will need to address my citizens, but it will wait until the day of my inauguration as Kazekage. Until then no words are to be spoken of my Father’s claimed suicide, none at all. Do you understand?” The council bowed before him.

“Dismissed.” Gaara waved the old men away with his hand like he had seen his Father do so many times before him.

“You’ve taken to your title well Gaara.” Sasori’s voice floated over his shoulder.

“Did you kill him? Did you kill my Father, your Brother?” Gaara didn’t turn around to look, he didn’t want to look at his Uncle right then, right there.

“If I did?” Sasori asked, flicking a piece of lint from his robe.

“Does Sakura know? Did she know?” Gaara asked.

“Did she know that I may have or may not have killed my brother?” Sasori was smirking now.

“No, she didn’t know.” Sasori said smoothly.

“I take it she knows now though.” Sasori stepped from around the side of the desk to sit in one of the chairs facing Gaara.

“Yes. Komei told her.” 

“You won’t be able to cover this up. A Kage committing suicide is almost unheard of.” Sasori drawled.

“No one will believe it was suicide.” Gaara hissed losing his cool.

“Of course not. They will blame you, or Sakura but most likely me.” Sasori looked up from his nails that he was examining.

Gaara met Sasori’s stare.

“No. You couldn’t have planned that far ahead.” Gaara’s voice was slow, unsure, hesitant.

“I always plan ‘that’ far ahead boy. Never forget that.” Sasori rose from his seat and cast Gaara one last look before leaving the office, stopping at the threshold.

“Before you do something rash boy, look into the vault, read your father’s notes and you will understand.” Sasori left without another word and Gaara let him.

Gaara rose from his desk and walked over to the Kazekage’s vault on the far wall and made the hand signs, bit his thumb and smeared his blood over the seal. It glowed red momentarily and he wondered if it would work, technically he wasn’t the Kazekage yet, did the seal know that? Only a few more seconds passed and the lock slid out of place, the heavy door swung open.

He had only seen inside the vault twice before now, but had never touched anything, never been allowed to read anything from it. Gaara moved a few things around, his hand falling on the scroll of forbidden jutsu, Sakura would love to get her hands on that, he smiled. His hands moved until he found what he had been looking for, his father’s notebooks. He took the small stack of books and tucked them into his robes, closing the vault behind him, reapplying the seal with his blood and left the Kazekage’s office.

Sand swirled around her feet as she stood outside of their cave. She had her eyes closed and let the desert winds ruffle the clothing around her body. Little grains of sand moved under her skin scratching, caressing. It reminded her of Gaara.

He had gone straight to his Uncle and then to the Kazekage office. She smiled. She was proud of him, she knew he would do well, he was born for it. She wasn’t worried. There would be talk, speculation but in the end it would fade away and be forgotten to the lines of history and he would shine, she knew.

She bit her thumb and pressed it into the seal, the door to the cave slid open and then closed behind her. ‘What was I born for?’, she asked herself. She moved slowly to the back of the cave, to the workroom. An exact replica of herself lay on the work table, almost completed, almost done. Sakura walked to the worktable and ran her fingers through the pink locks, her locks.

Sasori had done such an exquisite job with the puppet. He said it was his masterpiece, the best he had ever made. She didn’t doubt him. It had only taken him over four years to complete. 

“It just needs one last thing.” He had told her when she asked what was left to do on the puppet.

“What is that?” She had thought it was finished.

“Life.” He smiled at her.

“Life?” She had asked him confused.

“Life’s blood.” He smiled, took her hand and cut her deeply.

Her blood welled up from her veins onto a scroll he had waiting. Sheathing the blade he had used to cut her hand with he turned her arm so her blood dripped more cleanly onto the scroll.

“A storage scroll?” She had asked.

“To save a life.” He had murmured as they watched her blood flow from her hand onto the scroll.

“To save a life.” Sakura murmured to herself as her eyes ran once more over her puppet self.

She was sure Sasori had killed Rasa. Honestly it wasn’t even a surprise. Why though…

The door to the cave opened, it could only be one person. Their eyes met, she refused to look away, she wasn’t a little girl anymore and she wasn’t afraid of him.

“Why?” She asked.

“You’re going to have to be more specific dear.” He walked into the cave pausing at the work table to look down at the puppet.

“Why did you kill the Kazekage?” She asked him taking his arm and pulling him around so he would look at her.

“You forget your place.” He pulled his arm from hers and walked to the front room, dropping his bag beside the desk and chair.

“Isn’t my place with you? Isn’t that why you have been teaching me all of, all this, everything?” She waved her hand around.

“Do I not belong to you?” She asked him, stepping in front of him again.

“Sakura.”

She was angry.

“I came to say goodbye.” 

“What!” Her head snapped up.

“Gaara will banish me, as we discussed. It is the only way for suspicion to be drawn from the both of you. I will be blamed, as I should be and I will leave Suna.” He moved away from her when she walked up to stand before him.

He didn’t want to touch her, he wanted to make this quick, he had to leave, to move, to do something, to get away from her before he did something stupid, before he ruined all his plans for their future.

“Banished?” She bit her lip. ‘No’, she said to herself.

“No, I won’t let him. I’ll tell him to say you are innocent!” She clenched her teeth and growled at him.

Sasori smiled, “Impossible, no one will believe him and he will lose all credibility as the new Kazekage, this is how it must be.” 

“I have left everything to you, the house, the money, my title, everything is yours.” He handed her several scrolls, presumably his will, and all the titles to his goods, belongings and worldly possessions.

“Come.” he motioned her to follow him as he ducked back into the second room.

“Sasori.” Sakura began but she was hushed with his hand over her mouth.

“Please Sakura.” he never said please.

“There is a seal.” He continued when she nodded. “That will allow you to move from safe house to safe house as long as you have unlocked them previously with your blood, which you have.” He pointed to a small symbol in the corner of the room.

“The map I gave you is the key to all the other houses. Simply press one finger to the map where you wish to go and one hand to the floor over the seal with your blood and it will take you there. I have the other map. If you need me, you may leave me a note in this house here but only this house. It is the only one I will be checking for you since it is so close to Suna.” He said looking down at her.

“In three years I will come back for you.” He said, turning his back to her.

“What? Why can’t I go with you now?” She asked, stepping in front of him again demanding he look at her.

“It isn’t time yet, you are too young.” He said.

“Sasori.” Her voice cracked.

“I have to go. Three years from now, I will be back.” He moved over the seal, his bag on his back.

He bit his thumb and pressed it to the seal on the ground and disappeared.

She stood staring at the seal. He was gone. “Sasori.” Her eyes watered.

A pain in her throat kept her from calling out for him again. It wouldn’t do any good , he was gone. He had left her. Just like that. He was there and then...he had left her. She sat down hard on the stone floor of the cave.

She swallowed. Dumbly she looked around the room, her eyes falling onto the pile of scrolls he had thrust into her arms. Standing she picked them up one by one and shoved them into her bag, slowly at first, then in anger. He had left her.

All of the herbs she had brought with her to work on her antidote were in her pack but she didn’t care. She moved to the shelves on the right and started pulling down bottle after bottle to take back to her lab with her. She didn’t want to be in the cave anymore, she didn’t want to be reminded of him right now. He had left her…

Sakura flew through the cave shoving this or that into her bag, she stopped in front of the puppet, the one that looked like her.

“So you will always be with me.” He had told her when she asked why he was making a puppet that looked like her.

“You left it here though.” Her voice was small in the big cave.

“You left it here!” She screamed and punched a hole into the floor at her feet, her chakra cracking around her.

The cave shook, but only a small hole looked back up at her from the floor. Blood dripped off the tips of her fingers from the cuts on her hand. He had sealed the cave against her monstrous strength, he had taken that from her too, her anger, her desperation, her pain and had left her with nothing but a puppet that looked like her and a series of caves that reminded her of him.

Sakura straightened her back, wiped the tears from her eyes she hadn’t known were there and walked out of the cave, sealing it out of sheer habit and walking back to Suna through the sand and wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to 'circumstance', yes, Sasori left Suna a little earlier than he had originally planned.


	27. Chapter 27

Itachi watched her pink head bobbing over the dunes as she made her way back to the village. He had seen her leave only an hour ago, had seen the red head of Sasori follow her. He looked but it was only her, there was no sign of the Puppet Master. 

He had expected her to go to the gate. He thought she would be going to see Gaara but he waited and watched as she walked diagonally toward him. It was then he realized, she knew, she had known...that he had been watching her. She hopped up onto the wall beside him and sat down without a word.

They sat in silence for at least thirty minutes before she spoke.

“I know you know.” She said in an accusatory tone.

Itachi waited.

“I know he told you, why else would he send you, why else would Sasori have requested you.” She said with her hands behind her bracing her weight against the wall.

“So why...what’s the plan, it seems like everyone has a plan for me but no one will tell me what it is, much less ask me what I want to do, so what’s my Father’s plan for me, Itachi?” She looked over at him, her green eyes wet...she had been crying.

If he had been surprised she had been crying, he didn’t show it. He didn’t move.

“Not a plan.” Itachi began carefully.

“A request. Minato Sama would like you to come home, to Konoha.” There wasn’t any use pretending, it would only insult them both.

“Home.” She laughed.

“Konoha is not my home.” She looked out over the desert.

“Is Suna?” He asked her following her line of sight and looking out over the sand before them.

“I don’t know anymore.” She said quietly enough he might not have heard her but he had, he did.

“Perhaps a change would do you some good Princess.” Itachi’s words fell over the wall and over the sand.

“More change you mean.” She didn’t elaborate and he didn’t ask.

“I can’t leave Gaara, now more than ever.” She laughed at the idea of what it would do to Gaara if she left him now, there would be no Suna left, he would kill them all.

“I don’t suppose you can.” Itachi rose from his seat.

“I have sent word to Konoha of course. I give you my sympathy for your loss as a representative of the Hokage’s but I am sure Minato Sama will be sending a political missive saying the same soon.” Itachi bowed low.

“We can postpone our lesson Monday if you wish.” He waited for her reply before leaving.

“That is not necessary.” 

He nodded and left her to think on the wall alone.

Sakura remained on the wall until just before sunset. The hot Suna sun beating down on her head. She had healed her reddened skin twice as she sat there, cooling her body with her chakra. Once in a while she would see a flash out of the corner of her eye, and Anbu, making their rounds. None stopped to speak with her, no one came looking for her. For once, she was left in peace.

She had long since healed her hand, but the blood remained dried and caked against her skin. She rubbed it with her other hand and watched the dark red flakes fall to her knee where the desert wind picked them up and carried them out into the void.

He was gone. He had left her. She had Gaara. There was Temari and Kankuro, even Komei, but Sasori...had been her whole world for so long, had been...what was he to her? He was her teacher of course, her mentor, her...nameless comfort. 

There was a loss in her heart that she had no name for. She didn’t know what to call it, she only knew that he was gone.

‘Three years’, he had said. Why three years? She would be eighteen in three years.

‘You belong to me, no one else’, how many times had he said that to her…’You’re mine’, how many times had she woken up and heard him whisper that in her ears. ‘Mine’, then why did you leave?

‘You’re too young’, was that why? Sakura sighed into the fading light and stood, stretching. She had forgotten about lunch, she hadn’t been hungry. She was now though and wondered what Gaara was doing, was he still in his meetings? She closed her eyes and sent her chakra out into the village and beyond. There, he was in the Kazekage’s office. His office. She smiled. It suited him.

Temari was in her room when she got home that evening.

“What are you doing?” Sakura watched her sister pack her clothes into scrolls and move her books around her room.

“Gaara wants you fully moved back into the manse before he gets home tonight.” Temari avoided her eye and continued to pack her things.

“I’m not moving.” Sakura picked up the scroll Temari had been sealing her clothes into and emptied it back out.

“Kankuro is in the bathroom getting your toiletries.” Temari distracted her.

Sakura ran from her bedroom and into the bathroom where Kakuro was throwing her things into another storage scroll.

“Out, get out.” She pointed at him and then the door.

“But Gaara said he wanted…”

“Out!” She infused chakra to her fist and he ran.

Sakura picked the scroll up off the floor of her bathroom and walked back into the bedroom. Temari was gone as were all of her clothes.

“Gaara!” Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs.

Sakura put down the storage scroll from the bathroom and walked out of her room down the hall, and into Sasori’s bedroom. Everything was gone. There was a note on the bed. Sakura picked it up, a seal was on the wrapper. It was for her.

She bit her thumb and smeared the blood over the seal and the scroll unraveled, a thin gold chain fell from the binding. She picked the necklace up in her hand and smoothed out the scroll. It wasn’t a long note, it wouldn’t be.

‘Sakura. I hope I had a chance to tell you goodbye. If not, this will suffice. I will be back for you. Remember who you are.’

There was no signature, there was no need. 

Sakura lifted the necklace to peer at the pendant. A little scorpion winked at her in the last rays of light before the dark. She unclasped the chain and clasped it around her neck. She moved to the dresser where he kept a small mirror. The gold shone in the light of the rising moon through the window of the room that was once Sasori’s. Anger, hurt and confusion had her running back down the stairs, out the front door and to the training grounds.

He found her in his bed, in the Kazekage’s rooms. The maids had removed his father's things while he had been in meetings and moved his things in. 

He knew she wouldn’t want the maids going through her things so he had asked Temari and Kankuro to bring them to the manse, to put them in their old room until his new rooms were ready for him. Apparently it hadn’t gone well. Sakura had found them, yelled at them and taken her things back.

She had stormed from the house shortly after, Temari and Kankuro had snuck back in to finish the job. He had heard her screaming from his office, had had to place a silencing jutsu on the windows so he could hear the plans for the future that the elder’s were proposing. He had not been looking forward to her temper that evening but it was unavoidable.

Temari had caught him by the front door to the manse. Sakura hadn’t eaten dinner she had told him with a worried look in her eye. His siblings knew what Sasori meant to Sakura, as much as they could know. Their Father’s death, while horrible, was not a great loss to any of them. They weren’t close to him, he didn’t love them like a Father should. He was always Kazekage first, Father second, or maybe even third or not at all to Gaara.

Kankuro had been there when Gaara had declared their Uncle a missing nin. The council was divided. Some had expected it, some shocked and some, the quieter ones, suspected it was Gaara. Kankuro stood by his brother, supported him and the council swore Gaara into his title as Kazekage. The missives to the other villages would go out in a week, the inauguration would be held in two weeks.

Only one soul was brave enough to ask, “...and the Princess, is what Rasa assured us going to come to pass? She has agreed to marry you on her sixteenth birthday?”

“Yes.” Was all Gaara said before he dismissed the council for the evening.

His brother had pulled him aside after the old men had left. “Did she? Sakura agreed?”

“No, but they don’t need to know that. She will, in time. She loves me. She knows I love her.” Gaara left then, he had other things to take care of before he could see her, before he could hold her and pretend that at least some of this horrible day was just a nightmare.

He had taken his time climbing the stairs to his Father's suite, now his. He had been relieved when he had opened the door and found her asleep in the third room on his father’s bed, now thiers.

Gaara sat down beside her. 

Sakura rolled over in the big bed and opened her eyes to find Gaara looking down at her, his fingers sifting through her hair.

“Was it horrible?” She asked him.

She didn’t even need to specify what part of his day she might think horrible, the whole day was. Every moment up until this one was...horrible.

“Yes.” He lay his head in her lap and she began to stroke his hair.

“This bed is too big.” He complained.

“This room is too big.” She giggled.

“Should we move back into our old room then? Or perhaps Sasori’s old room?” He asked.

He felt her legs stiffen under his head and looked up at her.

“You never asked me, you just assumed I would move back into the manse now that Sasori was gone.” Her hands stopped stroking his hair and he sat up.

“It is where you always belonged. If you can’t be with him, you belong with me.” He wouldn’t own her without knowing he had given his all to her in return. He wasn’t sure if what he was doing was right, but it is what he felt was right in his heart.

“If I was wrong, I will have Temari move your things back tomorrow.” He said quietly.

Sakura sighed. “You weren’t wrong but Gaara, it would have been nice to have been asked what I wanted instead of it decided for me. I think...Sasori’s room will do. You can stay here, in the Kazekage’s rooms, but I think...I want to stay in our old rooms, his rooms.” She pulled him back down into her lap and started massaging his head again.

“But tonight, I will stay with you. I don’t want to be alone tonight and neither do you.” She bent over his head and kissed his kanji, ‘Love’, she didn’t even know what that meant now. 

“I will have your things moved tomorrow.” 

Sakura nodded. “Are you hungry? I forgot to eat lunch and I think I slept through dinner.”

“Temari saved us some food. Should I have it brought up or would you like to go down to the kitchen?”

“Have it sent up please. I’m going to find my sleeping clothes. I’ll meet you in your sitting room.” She moved his head gently from her lap and walked out of the room.

Gaara’s eyes followed her. She was holding it back, she was holding it in. ‘How long’, he wondered, until it all came rushing out...would it be an explosion, would it be a flood...would she kill someone...he only hoped she would turn to him when she fell apart.

‘She is stronger than that boy’, Shukaku reprimanded him.

‘Our mate will not fall part over the loss of the Puppet Master.’ His tail swished back and forth tickling the corners of Gaara’s mind.

‘But we will be here for her, if she needs us, because he is gone now, who else would she turn to if not to us. He is gone now, there is no one to stand in our way from taking what is ours.’ Shukaku’s eyes flashed yellow and his grin spread wide across his face.

‘Perhaps’, Gaara nodded to the tanuki who had started to purr at the thought of Sakura finally being theirs.

Gaara called down to the kitchens to have a late dinner sent up for them. It was laid out on the table of the sitting room when she returned with a small bag.

“This is going to take some getting used to.” Sakura smiled at the array of food on the table before them.

“Remember when we weren’t even allowed to come into this room?” Gaara smiled at her as he handed her a plate.

“I do, remember when we tried to sneak in because we swore your dad had a girlfriend but he was watching cooking shows!” Sakura laughed at the memory.

“He would lock himself in this sitting room every Wednesday night at 8pm without fail! We were so convinced he had a woman in here!” They laughed together and ate sharing memories until neither one could keep their eyes open and their mouths from yawning.

Somehow it was different tonight. It wasn’t the same crawling into bed with him as it had every time before tonight. Sakura bit her lip as Gaara laid down beside her in the oversized bed. She held her breath as he pulled her back up against his chest, slid his arm up and over her middle hugging her against him. It was different now that Sasori was gone, that his Father was dead. Gaara was the Kazekage, he was a man now and...Sakura felt like, she was doing something wrong being there, in bed with him now.

“What’s wrong Sakura? You’re so tense.” Gaara’s breath ghosted the back of her neck making her shiver.

“I’m just, it’s strange don’t you think, both of them gone, in the same day, the same twelve hours, just gone.” She turned in his arms to face him, to read his expressions against her own.

“We’re still here though, together like always.” Gaara watched the pain flicker over her eyes, saw her jaw tighten in anger and betrayal.

“Does he even know?” Gaara asked her, his lips barely moving.

“Who?” She looked past his eyes to the wall where the shadows loomed.

“Sasori, does he know, did he know when he left, how you...I’m not a fool, Sakura. I know you...cared for him.” Gaara couldn’t say it, he refused to say it because if you say it, it makes it real.

“I don’t know.” She whispered.

‘I will be back for you, in three years’, he had said. ‘Did he know?’, perhaps.

“Does it matter now? He is gone.” Her eyes shown dark green in the faded light, like the dark forests of the Konoha she had never known, never called home.

“No. It doesn’t matter to me Sakura. I love you. It doesn't matter.” Gaara moved against her, moving her chin up with the crook of his arm.

“I am Kazekage now. Are you my wife?” 

Sakura trembled in his arms.

“Too much Gaara. This is too much.” She bent her head to his chest, she couldn’t look at him, with his red hair, so like Sasori’s, with his teal eyes, so unlike Sasori’s.

“Too much.” She whispered, her shoulders shook.

Gaara felt the warmth of the wet on his chest before his mind could understand what his body felt, what his eyes could see. Sakura, the indomitable rock, was crying, sobbing into his chest.

“I’m sorry Sakura. Forgive me.” 

His arms held her, his voice soothed her and eventually she stopped and let him hold her, let him whisper all the things she needed to hear to her in the dark of the night, in the light of the full moon, in the shadow of what once was.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six months after Rasa's death and Sasori's banishment leave Sakura and Gaara with more than they can handle. Being the Kazekage is wearing, training with the Uchiha isn't as easy as she thought it would be and neither one of them know how to express their feelings well.

“That’s enough Sakura.” Itachi’s voice was gentle.

It infuriated her.

“Not enough, not nearly enough.” She held her hands in the same position, willing herself to break his genjutsu.

“You’re going to hurt yourself.” His voice held a note of warning, of worry.

She was pushing herself too hard, she knew it, he knew it.

“I have to do this.” She grit her teeth.

“Kai!” She screwed her eyes shut, the pressure was so great, it was breaking her…

“Release!” A whimper escaped her lips as her knees began to buckle under the pressure.

She could feel the tension fading, he was slowly releasing the layers of his genjutsu. Pity, it was pity...

“Don’t you dare!” She hissed at him.

“I will not accept your pity!” Her teeth were cracking.

“Very well.” Itachi cast the two layers he had removed over her once again.

Her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the ground panting.

“Useless. I’m so fucking useless.” She refused to cry as she buried her face in her arms.

“Sakura.” Itachi had ceased calling her Princess, or Sakura San.

“I don’t want to hear it Itachi.” She had stopped calling him Uchiha.

“I won’t say it then. I’ve said it too many times. You don’t listen anyway. Stubborn woman.” He sat down on the sand beside her, handing her a bottle of water without looking at her.

Sakura took the bottle of water and pressed it up against her sweating forehead. She felt sick. She knew she was pushing herself too hard but…

“Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes...it helps to talk to someone who will just listen, to tell someone who you don’t give a damn what they think. You know by now, I won’t judge you for whatever is making you...so reckless.” Itachi leaned back against the rock he sat in front of. Sakura was still laid out in the sand next to him, her face turned to the sky.

“It’s gone. I went there last night and it’s gone, he took it. He came and left, no note, no nothing, he just came and took the puppet, the puppet I told you about, that looks like me and then left. My letter to him was still on the table, he didn’t even...open it.” She choked on her words and turned her head to the side away from him.

“Six months...I haven’t heard from him in six months and he just…” She stopped talking, she couldn’t bear to hear her own words. 

They sounded like the words of a weakling, of a love sick weakling longing for a lover that cast them aside, or that of a child whose parents abandoned them...which one was she, she didn’t know.

“Perhaps he couldn’t bear it, just like you can’t bear to talk about him to Gaara.” Itachi offered gently.

“You know it isn’t the same thing.” She turned her head to look at him.

“Isn’t it?” Itachi looked down at her.

“Maybe, I don’t know. I’m more confused now than I have ever been. Before when he was here it was...easier, it was more clear, my...feelings, my goals and now I feel like I’m just floundering like I’m floating and at any moment any strong wind will come and whisk me away into nothing. I feel so lost without him.” 

“I envy him.” Itachi pulled a cloth from his pocket and wet it with his water bottle. 

“Sasori?” Sakura asked as he dabbed the sweat from her face with the moistened cloth.

“Yes. To have such loyalty, such devotion from someone so...it is rare.” He smiled down at her, as the cool cloth moved gently over her face.

“A lot of good my loyalty has done me. He left.” She mumbled.

“There are always two sides to everything, Sakura. He didn’t tell you why he left, but you of all people knew him, you probably better than anyone. The answer is there, you just haven’t found it yet.” 

“Why are you here Itachi?” She sat up, drawing her knees up with her body and hugging them against her chest.

“You know why.” He wrung the cloth out he had used to cool her face and stuck it back into his pocket.

“Sasori requested you, the Hokage sent you to coax me into coming back with you to Konoha…” She answered.

“I requested to come before I was told either of those things.” Itachi smiled at her confused expression.

“I knew from my previous visits that you have an unusual relationship with Gaara, but I was unaware of your...unique bond with Sasori. I think that even you were unaware of it, until he left. I haven’t given up but...this mission is proving much harder than I had originally anticipated.” He laughed.

“What?” 

“You’re in love with Akasuna no Sasori, Sakura, and Sabaku no Gaara, the Kazekage...aren’t you? Is there any room in there for me?” He asked her playfully.

“I’m not in love with Gaara.” She said flatly, she didn’t appreciate Itachi teasing her. 

“He’s just...we’re...I’m not sure what we are but I’m not in love with him.” She hadn’t said it like she had meant it.

Itachi smirked at her. “...and Sasori?”

“I…” She trailed off. “I don’t know.”

Itachi sighed, stretched and folded his arms behind his head relaxing further into the sand, his back still up against the rock.

“I’ll settle for your friendship then, you let me know when you figure out which one you are in love with so I can tell your father which psycho he can expect to welcome into the family.” Itachi closed his eyes and waited for the punch, but it never came. He cracked an eye open to see her biting her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Sakura, I was kidding.” He leaned forward and poked her in the forehead.

She blinked and slapped his hand. “I know that, it’s just...why do I have to choose between them, what if...I want to marry outside of the family...or not at all?” She frowned at him as if it were his fault.

Itachi laughed at her again, “As if you have a choice. Between a man like Sasori and your Gaara, one of them will have you married and tied up before you can blink.”

“Oh yeah?” She stood and put her hands on her hips, glaring down at him, “They haven’t yet. In fact I believe one fled the village and the other is scared to ask me to bed after last time!”

“You mean last month when you woke up to him kissing you?” Itachi’s mouth twitched.

“Yes.” She tried not to laugh but failed miserably, breaking out into a fit of giggles, falling back down beside him.

“Ah Sakura, it isn’t so bad is it, being you? You’re a princess from two ancient bloodlines, you live in a mansion, have the love of two of the most powerful shinobi in the world and the friendship of the heir to the Uchiha clan.” He added that last bit with a small smirk.

“I never asked for any of this.” She looked down at his hand where it was resting on her knee.

“I never wanted to be the heir to the Uchiha clan, but it is what I was born to.” He said, pulling her closer to him by the wrist.

“I wasn’t born to be where I am now, I was stolen and sold into it.” She countered.

“You are still the granddaughter to the offspring, legitimate or not, of the Third Kazekage.” He smoothed her hair over her shoulder and to the side.

“I suppose.” She leaned against him.

“You always have Konoha, if you decide to, say ...run away?” He bent his head and kissed her cheek.

“Itachi.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I have to tell the Hokage I tried. I’d hate to have to lie to him.” Itachi smiled at her innocently, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

Sakura felt them before she saw them and knew Itachi had felt them too, but he didn’t remove his arm from her shoulder or back away from her like he usually did. She cast him a curious glance and he shrugged.

“We’re friends.” He winked at her.

“Princess.” A masked Anbu dropped down in front of them giving Itachi a narrowed eye.

“Yes?” Sakura asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Kazekage Sama wishes to see you, he is in his office.” The masked Anbu bowed low to her.

“I will be right there.” Sakura tried to rise but Itachi refused to move his arm when she made to stand.

“Itachi?” Sakura looked at him.

“Wait a moment.” He kept his arm around her and looked back at the Anbu who appeared to be hesitating, wanting to say something.

“You may leave Anbu San, thank you.” Sakura waved the Anbu away but the man didn’t move.

“Princess, if I may be so bold...the Kazekage would not like it if he knew that...the Konoha Uchiha was….touching you so familiarly.” The Anbu nearly choked out.

“What are you insinuating Anbu San?” Her voice was low, a clear warning to anyone who knew her.

“Ah, nothing, forgive me Princess.” The Anbu leapt to the nearest building and ran over the rooftops back to the Kazekage’s office.

“What was that Itachi?” Sakura asked him, she was more curious than upset.

“Haven’t you noticed the shift in power, Sakura, since the Fourth Kazekage’s death and Sasori’s banishment?” He asked her.

“Well, Gaara is the Kazekage but that’s not what you mean is it?” She looked at him, he knew something.

“What is it Itachi, have your crows seen or heard something?” She asked, she knew he sent his crows out, could turn into one and watch people, see things most people would not from the air, from small corners or window sills.

“The Iwa nin have left, the Tsuchikage gave his sympathies for the death of the Fourth Kazekage, but you did turn down his proposal for Deidara, it would have caused problems. You’re not the political Rasa was, nor is Gaara, being so new to his position.” Itachi said slowly.

“There is unrest, I can feel it.” He warned her.

“I can too. I can feel it in the Earth, the village is still in shock after what happened to Rasa, after what happened with Sasori. We look weak to the other nations. I am glad Konoha has stayed strong with us, or there may have been another war.” She admitted.

“There still might be war Sakura. Have you heard of the Akatsuki?” He asked her a little too casually.

Her shoulders stiffened and he felt it under his arm.

“So you have, then you know they are a terrorist group, that they are after all of the tailed beasts?” Itachi said carefully.

“Are they? I didn’t know that.” She admitted.

“They will come for Gaara, and when they do...that’s when Iwa and Kumo will attack Suna. Be ready Sakura. War is coming.” Itachi took his arm from around her shoulders.

“Konoha is here though, for Suna, the alliance has been beneficial to both of our villages. You have saved countless Konoha shinobi who would have died, not being able to make it home to get treated but made it to your gates in time for you to save them and vice versa. The Hokage is your father, publicly or not, and the Nine tails is your brother, we will stand behind you.” He smiled at her as they stood together.

Sakura could feel Gaara getting restless, what had the Anbu told him...Itachi pulled her attention back to him with a tug of her hair.

“I’ll be here for you, if anything happens to Gaara.” He smiled at her.

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Very funny Itachi. I need to go. I’ll see you later!” She ran off toward the Kazekage’s office where she could feel Gaara’s chakra swirling around the building, no doubt wondering what was taking her so long.

“Sakura.” Gaara was pacing back and forth in his office, he had been waiting for her when the Anbu had come back without her, telling him that she had been with the Uchiha and that the Uchiha had kept her from leaving immediately.

“Sorry Gaara, I was with Itachi, he told me something you need to know about the Akatsuki.” She ignored his dark chakra flooding the room and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

“The Akatsuki?” That had gotten his attention, “What about them?” He asked.

“Itachi says they are collecting the tailed beasts, that they will come for you one day and to be wary, that is when Iwa and Kumo will attack. They weren’t pleased when I turned down their proposal for me to wed Deidara were they.” She saw that he had stopped pacing and had taken her words seriously.

“They knew we were betrothed. My Father may not have made it public before he was killed but everyone in the five great nations know, you belong to me.” His possession over her had only increased in the last six months and Sakura was more than a little annoyed.

It seemed the closer in friendship she got to Itachi the more obsessed Gaara had become, but he couldn’t send him away, it was part of their treaty. Without the presence of his father or Sasori Gaara’s more dominant nature had started to take over and she didn’t care for it at all.

Repeatedly over the last six months he had tried to convince her to move from their old rooms, from Sasori’s rooms into the Kazekage suite with him, but she denied him every time. She liked her rooms, she had liked living in Sasori’s childhood home more but had conceded to his need to have her closer after his father’s death and Sasori’s abandonment.

At first, they had spent almost every night together, until she had woken up too many times to him...kissing her. She felt the need to distance herself from him. He had blamed it on Shukaku, but she was skeptical.

It had been six months since she had been on a mission. Gaara refused to send her out of the village claiming she was needed at the hospital, the academy or on his personal council, which only consisted of her, Temari and Kankuro.

She didn’t know if it came with the title, the position, but Gaara was trusting people less, he had become more withdrawn even from her and sleeping less, even when they slept together. He was...changing and it worried her.

“Gaara, I don’t belong to you.” She began but he cut her off, it seemed like he had been doing that to her more lately as well, he never let her talk, never let her have an opinion anymore, never asked her what she wanted now.

“You do Sakura.” He growled and his eyes flashed yellow for a moment then faded back to their usual teal.

Shukaku had been surfacing more in the two months, talking to him more, whispering to him in his head. Too many times she had woken to the sound of his voice, hushed in secret conversation with the tanuki. Sometimes arguing, sometimes agreeing and most of the time, they were talking about her…

“No Gaara. We have talked about this. We are close, we are family, but I do not belong to you. I love you Gaara but I do not belong to you. There is a difference.” She held her ground, she stood straight, her back stiff but straight.

His eyes were cold as they looked her over...calculating and she realized...he was looking for a weakness. Where had her friend gone, where was the boy who loved and adored her...gone were the days of laughter where she would wrestle him to the ground or smother him in their bed with a pillow then laugh with him over it.

“What is the difference?” He asked her. “I see no difference.”

“There are different kinds of love Gaara.” She said quietly.

“What do you know of love?” He spat out at her, he was angry...he was always angry now it seemed.

Sakura remembered saying those same words to Sasori, but in a completely different tone, the meaning was the same though she realized. 

“Shit.” She realized…

“What?” Gaara had his head cocked to the side observing her breathing, her body language.

“I want a mission. I want to get out of the village for a few days. I need to...vent, to be alone.” She said carefully.

“I will spar with you. I will set some time aside tomorrow if you like.” He said quickly, he didn’t want her leaving the village without him and he couldn’t leave, his duties of Kazekage kept him close to the village almost all the time.

“A spar will not satisfy me. I need more, I need blood Gaara. Surely you of all people understand?” She tried to smile at him.

“I will think about it.” He turned his back on her.

“What did you want to see me for, the Anbu said you wanted to see me right away.” She stood up from the chair thinking it couldn’t be that important if he had forgotten about it.

“I’m tearing down Sasori’s old house. You don’t need it, it is taking up space. I’m going to build an extension for the hospital in its place.” He turned to look out the window, avoiding her eye.

“No.” Her voice was low.

“Sakura.” He began.

“No!” She yelled at him.

“It is my house! He gave it to me! No! You can’t, it doesn’t belong to you, you can’t just tear it down because...because you are jealous!” She said what she had been wanting to say for over six months to him.

“Jealous.” Gaara hissed.

“What do I have to be jealous of? I am the Kazekage. I’m not jealous of some missing nin, a murderer, a coward.” Gaara turned to face her.

“A coward?” The word was bitter on her tongue.

“Sasori is not a coward, how dare you Gaara, how dare you?” Her fists were clenched at her sides and she was leaning forward, leaning into his challenge.

“Sasori didn’t run away, he did it for you, he left so the blame would be cast on him and not you! This is how you repay him? You ungrateful, spoiled little…” 

Her words caught in her throat as his sand shot out and pushed her up against the wall locking her in place. Gaara walked up to her slowly, his sand crawling over her skin, over her wrists, her fingers cementing them to the wall behind her.

“Ungrateful? Spoiled?” He hissed in her face.

“You are the ungrateful one, you are the spoiled one Sakura. I gave you everything and this is how you repay me? You care more for a memory than for me?” He rubbed his cheek against hers.

“He’s gone, Sakura. He’s been gone for six months. Has he written you? Has he sent you word of any kind?” He knew Sasori hadn’t, she would have told him right away.

“You know he hasn’t.” She hated it. 

She hated how he was making her feel. She hated how much it hurt, his words, what he was doing but she couldn’t deny him his angst. To him, it was pointless, to him there was nothing to hold onto. To him, she was making him wait for nothing. She hadn’t told him what Sasori had said.

‘In three years I will come back for you.’

It was her hope and she refused to let it go, for anyone, not even for Gaara.

“You’re mine Sakura.” His voice had changed, it was softer, more dangerous.

“I’m not.” She looked him in the eye and saw the flash of yellow.

“You are!” He grabbed her face and held it in place, crushing his mouth over hers bruising her lips.

“Gaara! What the hell do you think you’re doing!” Kankuro’s voice boomed throughout the office as the door slammed open behind him.

“Get out.” Gaara snarled, turning his head to the right to look at his brother.

“Kankuro, get Temari.” Sakura said in a calm controlled voice. “Now.”

Kankuro backed out of the room, then ran. They could hear his footsteps pounding on the wooden floors all the way to the end of the hall where his and Temari’s offices were.

“Sakura.” Gaara rested his forehead against hers like they used to do when they were kids.

“Gaara, this isn’t right, let me go.” She tried but he laughed at her.

“Why? So you can run away, so you can go find my Uncle?” He asked her.

“What gave you the impression I would ever do something like that?” She asked him.

Gaara snorted. “I know you Sakura.”

“Apparently not as well as you think if you think ‘this’ is going to make me want to marry you.” She rolled her eyes, he was calming down now.

Temari ran through the door into the office followed closely by Kankuro.

“Gaara, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” She demanded, pointing at Sakura who was still pinned to the wall with his sand.

“We had an argument, that’s all.” He lifted his hand and let it fall, his sand falling away from the wall releasing Sakura from his hold.

“If she really wanted out, she could have escaped.” He shrugged as if it were nothing.

“Are you alright?” Temari asked Sakura, taking one then two steps toward her.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Gaara, “Yeah, just an argument, it’s fine, thanks Temari...Kankuro.”

Sakura’s eyes never left Gaara’s and Gaara’s never left hers.

“Okay well, I guess...we’ll go. If everything is alright?” Kankuro looked from his brother to Sakura who nodded.

“We’ll be right down the hall, if you need us.” Temari gave Sakura a ‘look’.

“Thanks.” Sakura said, her eyes still on Gaara.

“I want a mission, outside of the village, now.” Sakura told Gaara once Temari and Kankuro were gone.

Gaara ran his hands through his hair a few times and sat down behind his desk and looked at her through slanted eyes.

“Is it really because of me that you want to leave, is it because I ...I’ve waited. I’ve been patient Sakura. You know how much I love you I…”

“Love me? Is that love Gaara?” She waved her hand to the wall he had pinned her to.

“I was just…” He looked down at his hands.

“Shukaku says that I need to be more,” He began.

“Shukaku can shut the fuck up!” She yelled.

“Every time you listen to him, we argue! He has never given you any good advice Gaara! He is causing more problems between us. You’ve changed Gaara, since you’ve become Kazekage, you’re not the same anymore, you’re more...I know things are different, that you would change, I would change but this, this is just…”

Like him, she couldn’t or wouldn’t say everything she wanted. They had both lost a little control and they needed to stay calm.

Sakura took a deep breath and laughed.

“What a mess we are.” She sat back down in the chair in front of his desk.

“I guess no one prepared us for healthy communication.” Gaara’s mouth twitched.

“We can slaughter villages, poison an army, take down countless elite shinobi but have an emotional conversation with feelings...forget it.” Sakura shook her head and slumped back into the chair.

“I’m sorry Sakura. I won’t tear Sasori’s house down. I just...I thought if it was gone it would be one less thing to remind you of him and maybe...you could move on.” He really did look sorry, Sakura thought.

“I know. I mean, I should have known that’s why you were doing it. I didn’t mean to call you ungrateful or spoiled. I’m sorry too.” She looked up at him through her eye lashes apologetically.

“Forgiven?” He asked coming from around his desk to sit on the corner in front of her.

“Me too?” She asked.

“Of course, let’s go get some dinner.” He pulled her up from the chair by the hands.

“Curry?” She asked.

“Whatever you want, Sakura.” Gaara ignored Shukaku’s rantings in his head and opened the door for her.


	29. Chapter 29

Amber eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar seal. The chakra was familiar however and he thumbed the wrapper inside the lining of the chest cavity where the heart should be. 

“Sakura, my dear, what in the hell did you think you were doing?” He squinted at the seal and drew back, his eyes wide.

“You...didn’t…” ‘How did she know? Did she know?’ A little smile spread over his face at the thought. She might have, she was very clever after all.

Knock. Knock.

Sasori turned his head to the door of his room in the Akatsuki base in Rain. He raised his hand gracefully and opened the door with his chakra strings.

“Sasori San, we have a mission in the morning.” The orange masked man set a scroll down on the small table by Sasori’s door.

“Very well.” Sasori nodded to the man, turning back to his puppet on his work table.

“What an unusual puppet Sasori San.” The man in the mask commented.

“Yes.” Sasori turned to look at the man.

“She does look an awful lot like your apprentice does she not? The hair, so life like. Tell me, did you cut her hair off in her sleep?” The man asked, his one eye glinting from behind his mask.

“No.” Sasori narrowed his eyes at the man.

“Ah, I meant no offense, none at all Sasori San. The doll is most beautiful, so realistic but not as real as your other puppets I’ve been told.” The man looked around Sasori’s room as though looking for his other puppets to compare them to the one on the table.

“That’s because this one is made of wood, the others...are not.” Sasori didn’t like Tobi, he was hiding something he could tell.

“Hum yes, I had heard you enjoy a rather different form of craftsmanship, one that you shared with your student?” The mask asked.

“Do you have a point or did you come here just to waste my time?” Sasori wanted him to leave, and quickly.

“Temper temper Sasori San, just as short fused as the girl. I heard she annihilated a whole village last week, leaving no survivors. A disgusting habit she got from you, no doubt?” 

“No doubt. Though, some might find it less offensive than the habits of conversation others hold in higher esteem.” Sasori turned his back on Tobi dismissing him.

“I’ll see you in the morning Sasori San. Consider me your...partner until we get more members.” Tobi left, leaving the door to Sasori’s room open.

Sasori turned and looked at the empty doorway. With a flick of his finger he snapped the door shut. “How annoying.”

Her arms were folded under her head, which was turned toward the wall. She lay on her stomach, one leg drawn up and to the side, away from him. Gaara ran his hand lightly up and down her back, his fingers catching in the strap of her tank top, pulling it down and off her shoulder. Sakura hummed in her sleep.

“I know you’re awake. You move more when I touch you when you’re asleep.” He was amused.

“I know you touch me in my sleep Gaara, that’s why I stopped sleeping with you.” She rolled over onto her back, his hand moved over her body as she moved to rest on her tummy.

“You knew?” His eyes traveled over her body and up to her face. She was smirking at him.

“Of course I knew, idiot.” She sighed.

“You never stopped me, never told me not to?” His fingers played with the hem of her short tank top, the space between her shorts and the bottom of the tank.

“Would you have stopped if I had asked you not to?” She closed her eyes to the morning sun.

“No.” He watched his fingers dip below the elastic of her shorts.

“Stop Gaara.” 

“Are you asking?” His fingers inched lower and lower.

“I’m telling you Kazekage to stop or I’m going to break your fingers off.” One of her eyes cracked open and his hand stilled.

“What if I don’t want to stop.” His eyes were still on his hand half in, half out of her shorts.

“Do you want your fingers broken? Or your whole hand for that matter?” She asked him, both of her eyes were open now.

“You would heal it for me wouldn’t you? Or I could get one of your students to heal it for me.” His fingers twitched, his other hand cupped her cheek as he leaned closer, over her.

“Gaara.” She growled.

“Fine.” He pulled his hand from the elastic of her shorts but his other remained on her cheek.

“I still think it would be worth a broken hand.” His spiky locks tickled her nose as he kissed her under her chin along her throat.

“Maybe even two broken hands.” His tongue flicked out against her skin moving down.

“Gaara.” Her voice caught in her throat.

“Hmm?” He slipped the other strap from her shoulder and ran his lips along the curve of her bare shoulder then down again.

“I need to get up.” ,,,but she didn’t move and he smiled into her neck.

‘She’s giving in boy’, Shukaku was pacing back and forth watching the girl through the boy’s eyes.

‘She knows he isn’t coming back, she sees how much we care about her’, Shukaku stopped pacing, his paws pressed up against the walls of Gaara’s mind.

‘Careful, she will run again, careful we don’t want to scare her’ Shukaku groaned.

‘You’re such a hypocrite’, Gaara teased the tanuki. ‘Wasn’t it you demanding I force her yesterday?’

‘A mistake!, I said I was sorry’, Shukaku whined.

“He isn’t coming back, Sakura.” Gaara murmured into her neck.

It had been the wrong thing to say.

Sakura pushed herself up and off the bed, Gaara fell to the side and watched her pull her shirt on over her head, then her pants and walk out of the room.

‘Way to go Kid’, Shukaku fell onto his back and stuck his paws up in the air. ‘And you were worried about me doing something wrong’, the tanuki rolled over and looked at Gaara in his mind with an annoyed look.

‘We weren’t going to get anywhere, she isn’t ready yet’, Gaara defended himself.

‘She will come around, she let us touch her more this time than she ever has before’, Teal eyes moved across the rumpled bedding, ‘and, I didn’t have to ask her to spend the night with me, she stayed because she wanted to’, Gaara pointed out to the raccoon.

‘True’, Shukaku lifted his head and sniffed the air, flowers.

Sakura walked back into the room, a wet rag in her hand as she wiped her face. 

“I’ll be in my lab all day, tomorrow I have class at the academy, I switched the days to Monday through Wednesday so I can have Thursday through Sunday for missions or foraging.” She walked back out of the room.

“I’ll see you later Gaara!” She called from his front room and shut the door behind her leaving him on his bed alone.

“That could have gone worse.” He said out loud.

‘She didn’t hit us, or break your hands’, Shukaku pointed out.

‘True’, Gaara climbed out of bed and walked to his bathroom to get ready for the day.

An hour later Gaara sat behind his desk, Temari giving him an exasperated look…

“Gaara, I know you want to keep her in the village but she has to leave once in a while, you can’t keep her locked up. She has students now, they need to learn out in the field. It’s a medical unit, they will be foraging not fighting.” Temari tried to get her brother to sign the release papers Sakura had submitted to her a month ago.

Gaara understood her change in schedule and why she had made a point to tell him that morning now.

He tapped his fingers on his desk. “She hasn’t had them that long. Where does it say she wants to go?”

“She has had them for a month now, you signed the paperwork, it was your idea...Roran, by the border, near Rock and Rain.” Temari said promptly.

“That’s far.” Gaara wasn’t sure if he wanted her to go that far.

“You and her went farther than that when you were six on solo missions to kill entire villages. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Temari rolled her eyes, set the paper in front of him and pointed to where he needed to sign in case he didn’t already know, which he did.

Gaara thought back to how he had woken up that morning, his arm over her body, her breath on his chest. If he gave her this, would she come to him more, if he let her have more freedom would she be more receptive to him…

“Okay.” He picked the pen up and signed his name to the bottom. “Make a copy and put it in her file. I want a list of the students she is taking with her and I want at least one Anbu to go with her since it is close to the border of two hostile countries, no exceptions. If she doesn’t agree to that, she can’t go.” 

“She’ll agree.” Temari smiled and walked out of the room before her brother could change his mind.

Sakura looked from the paper to Temari who was smiling at her. “He signed it?”

“He sure did.” Temari hugged her.

“I never thought he would sign it.” Sakura laughed.

“I don’t want to know what happened yesterday but whatever you guys got out of your systems, worked.” Temari winked at the younger girl and walked out of her lab.

Sakura bit her lip pleased that she would get to leave the village, pleased she could take her students and show them first hand how to collect the herbs, prepare them, and store them. Not everyone could learn from books the way she could, this was important.

Moving to her desk by the window she pulled a piece of paper from her drawer and started making a list of all the herbs to and from Roran they would collect, then she made a list of who would be going with her. Sakura paused. Temari told her she had to take an Anbu with her. A black feather caught her eye, the feather Itachi had dropped at her feet on the training field. He would do. He would be done with his lessons for the academy students by Wednesday, they would leave Thursday morning at dawn.

Sasori and Tobi walked at a leisurely pace toward Jomae Village. Tobi had heard there was a jinchuriki living in the village and Pein, the leader of the Akatsuki wanted them to investigate it.

Sasori didn’t mind walking, it gave him time to think, to plan, to readjust his original plan and to make sure there weren’t any loop holes. Currently he was making adjustments to his plan for his Sakura puppet. 

The girl had sealed her chakra into the chest cavity. He still wasn’t sure if she had done it with the intent to make the puppet more real for him or if she had done it simply to remind him she was there. Either way it opened up an array of new possibilities for his Sakura puppet, ones he hadn’t even thought of until he had discovered her little gift.

He had thought of making a module, or a core of some kind that held a heart, or a consciousness that could control the chakra channels, control the puppet like a battery or a computer but with chakra fueling it, an ever flowing chakra system running from one central unit, core or heart. A puppet, without strings, but hadn’t found a way to contain it until now, until Sakura had sealed her chakra into that Uzumaki seal and placed it in the chest cavity of his Sakura puppet. ‘Genius girl’, Sasori smiled.

Tobi walked in silence next to the Puppet Master. He was content with their walk and didn’t feel the need to harass or annoy the red head like he did with other members of the organization. Sasori kept to himself, did his missions effortlessly, never complained or caused any trouble. Tobi respected that and left him alone for the most part as a result.

“We could push on to Ishigakure in Rock or stop for the night, it doesn’t matter to me, you choose Sasori San.” Tobi offered the redhead after a brief stop just past the border of Rain.

Sasori looked up at the sky. “The weather is clear, let’s keep going and rest when we get to Ishigakure, there is a decent inn there, it will be worth the extra effort.”

Tobi nodded. “Then one more day, perhaps to Jomae Village.”

Gaara watched Sakura pack a small bag. She was smiling and had been smiling since he had signed her release papers for her little foraging mission. He had made the right choice, he was pleased to see her happy again. She had spent last night with him again of her own volition and they had woken up late, ate breakfast in bed together and talked like they used to. His patience was paying off and for once he and the tanuki were in agreement. Waiting was best.

It had been difficult these last six months. Gaara was the youngest Kazekage at the age of fifteen, the death of his Father still held a dark shadow over the village but the shadow was fading with time, just as Sakura told him it would. He was trying, he wanted to be a better leader than his Father, he wanted to show the village he could be strong for them, not against them.

Sasori has set up the funding for the children’s wing at the hospital for Sakura before he had left, the construction was on schedule and would be finished within the next six months if not sooner. The financing for the medical studies had gone through almost immediately after Sasori’s departure and had been going strong due to Sakura’s own efforts and investment of her time and expertise. 

All in all Gaara had to hand it to Sasori. He had set everything up so she wouldn't have to leave Suna, ever. He had set it up so the world would have to come to her, and they were. Requests to join the medical studies at the Suna academy came in almost everyday from nearby villages, towns and other smaller nations. 

A treaty with the Land of Bears and The Land of Keys had been made solely on the grounds that two students of promising talent could be sent to Sakura to learn the medical arts from her. Gaara was expecting treaties with both The Land of Birds and The Land of Claws to be signed soon as well on the same premise.

Sakura’s current students were expected to graduate soon. Suna would have four new qualified doctors, medic nins who could both heal and fight within the next five to six months. Sakura told him they lacked the foraging experience to recognize the herbs, fungi and raw materials in their natural habitat, which is why this mission was so important.

Her regiment was grueling, strict and almost cruel, but it was also rewarding to any who would pass, to be able to say they had learned from one of the best. Rumor had it that Sakura was close to, if she hadn’t already, to surpassing Tsunade Senju in her medical jutsu prowess and Gaara didn’t doubt it. Sakura worked tirelessly, experimented beyond the boundaries of normal science, took something and made it her own, tweaking it until it was perfect, flawless and efficient, like her. Gaara couldn’t be more proud of her.

“Promise you’ll be careful. You’re taking Kayda with you right?” Gaara asked as he watched her tie her scrolls to her belt.

“I always do.” She smiled at him.

“You haven’t made any puppets since he left, why?” He asked her.

“I will. I haven’t found anyone I wanted to make a puppet out of yet though, seeing as I haven’t been out of the village until now.” She gave him a mock glare and he shrugged.

“It’s been hard Sakura.” He didn’t need to say more than that. She understood.

“It’s been hard for all of us since your Uncle and your Father left. Temari and Kankuro too you know, they have had a hard time too.” She wasn’t saying anything they hadn’t said before.

“Some of them, in the council, they still look at me like I’m a monster, like I’ll lose control any moment Sakura.”

“Some of them will always look at you like that Gaara and it will never change. You just keep doing what you’re doing.” She left it at that. He didn’t need to be reminded about how he lost control for a moment the other day, he knew already.

“Look Gaara, do you think I don’t already know why you’ve kept me here, why you are so possessive and why you are so controlling when it comes to me?” She sat beside him on her bed and took his hand in hers.

“I know why Gaara, but you can’t keep me here forever. I have things I want to do too. Just because I leave the village doesn’t mean I’m leaving you. If I wanted to find Sasori...I would have left already. You need to trust me more.” She let go of his hand and pulled her bag on over her head as the sun’s first rays peeked over the dunes in the East.

“I’ll be careful. I’ll have Itachi send you his summons if anything happens and I will check in with you via hawk or his crow in a few days okay?” She kissed his kanji and turned to go but he pulled her back.

“I still don’t know why you had to choose him to go with you.” He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

“Be safe, come home whole. I’ll be waiting.” Gaara bent his head and kissed her softly on the mouth, testing her.

When she didn’t move or push him away he moved closer, to her kiss her more soundly.

“Gaara.” Her lips moved, creating an opening for him and he pushed his tongue into her mouth, fisting her shirt at the base of her back holding her in place.

He released her quickly, but pressed his cheek to hers stepping into a hug. “Send word if you need me. You know I will come to you whatever I am doing, I’ll come to you if you need me.”

Sakura nodded, straightened her bag on her back and walked to the window of her room. Looking over her shoulder at him, she smiled. “Thank you Gaara.” and jumped out the window running to the gate.

“Come back soon.” He said to the now empty room, looking out the window as her pink head streaked across the village joined by one black and three brown heads at the gate.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People can't read minds...and thank goodness for that...but not for Sasori, poor Sakura comes to a decision.

It was hot. Really hot, as they ran across the desert toward Roran. Sakura made sure to keep a slower pace for her students. She wasn’t sure if she made a good sensei, they wouldn’t tell her if she wasn’t but she did hope she was at least as good of a teacher as Sasori.

She hadn’t planned on taking students on but Gaara had suggested it and she had been bored, so she did. After a few awkward mishaps and accidental poisonings, it went rather well and she was pleased with the results.

These three were the first of her Suna students that she had run through an accelerated program. The students from Bear and Key were scheduled to arrive the first of the next year, stay a year and then go back to their own villages to ensure the care of their own citizens.

Sakura had been hesitant at first to take on students from other villages but she had replaced her original lesson plan with a broader more general one to ensure that Konoha and Suna remained on top of the healing arts as far as the rest of the world was concerned. 

A few quick missives to and from Konoha to both Tsunade Senju and Shizune confirmed and comforted them on that front. Sakura made it very clear she was teaching general healing basics and that she was giving none of the advanced healing secrets away that she had learned from Shizune during her time in Suna.

Iwagakure and Kumogakure had grown increasingly more vocal in their opinions after Sakura had turned down the Tsuchikage’s marriage proposal for her and Deidara and even more so when they learned of the new treaties popping up around Earth due to the new academy course in Suna that Sakura was teaching.

As she ran through the desert, her students behind her, and Itachi behind them Sakura admitted to herself that maybe Gaara had a point keeping her and her students in Suna, but she also knew that seeing the plants and raw materials first hand in the natural environment was a lot different than seeing them in jars in a lab. They needed this experience and these were Suna nin, she would make sure they got it.

Sakura halted at midday, her students falling to the sand around her, exhausted.

“Are you serious?” She looked at them, this was pathetic.

Itachi’s mouth twitched. “Not everyone is as insane as you are Sakura. I doubt they train twelve out of the twenty four hours that are in a day like you.”

Sakura scoffed. “We are resting for ten minutes, then moving on, so drink your water carefully, no gulping, eat a bite or two, no stuffing your faces. If you hold me up. I will leave you behind.”

“So harsh Sakura. Is that how Sasori trained you?” Itachi teased her.

“Sasori Kun wouldn’t have stopped for a ten minute break, and we would have been a lot farther than we are now at a much faster rate. If I had slowed him down like this, he would have poisoned me, and still made me run after him, while he considered giving me the antidote.” She looked down at her students in disgust.

“Forgive us Sakura Sama.” One of the girls bowed low to her. “We will do better.”

The others nodded, moving to their feet and sipping water.

Itachi’s mouth twitched as he handed each of them a soldier pill. “Let’s not have any of you dying on us today hum?”

Sakura rolled her eyes but she allowed them to crunch the pill between their teeth in silence. Endurance training had just been added to their curriculum...as well as dodging and taijutsu she thought critically, her eyes passing over each of her students individually.

“Break’s over, let’s move.” Sakura could hear the groaning protests behind her and hid a smile in her shirt by ducking her head as she ran.

She might have been mistaken but she swore she heard the low masculine chuckle of Itachi Uchiha not far behind the groans of her students. She smiled, this was the most fun she had had in a long time and she thanked Gaara silently as she sped up laughing at the shrieks of her students behind her, and the out loud laugh of the Uchiha.

Sakura was displeased when they stopped for the night and made camp. They were only halfway to Roran, she would have liked to have made it to Roran before stopping but it was clear that her students couldn’t move anymore. The last one crawled in ten minutes after the others, collapsing in the sand by the feet of the other girl in the group besides Sakura.

Itachi avoided looking at Sakura as he pulled wood from his storage scroll. She was pissed. So pissed that her chakra flared every now and then, he doubted she even meant to do it in her annoyance.

“Sakura, love, you’re scaring the kids.” Itachi smirked and pointed to the three students who were pulling their bedding from their packs and laying it out by the fire he was making. Terror on their faces as they glanced at her every five seconds.

Sakura huffed in annoyance and walked a little ways out into the desert to vent.

Itachi turned back to the wood and lit the fire with a minor fire jutsu. All heads turned to watch a huge mushroom cloud of sand explode about a mile away into the fading light of the desert sky.

“Don’t worry, she does that sometimes. You’re doing fine. Make sure to get plenty of rest though, she will want to get going at first light.” Itachi told the group.

Sakura came stomping back to their camp not five minutes later and sat down beside the fire.

“Maybe before first light.” Itachi amended, avoiding Sakura’s piercing eyes in the dim.

Itachi made dinner that night, a light soup with rice balls. 

Sakura sat with her knees drawn up to her chest staring into the fire. Itachi watched her and wondered what she was thinking about. It wasn’t her students. He turned his head to the three bodies not much younger than Sakura sprawled out in the sand and bedding, snoring.

“Do you snore?” He nudged her playful with his foot as he sat beside her.

“You know I don’t.” She didn’t look at him, her head still turned toward the fire.

“Does Gaara? Is that why you stopped sleeping with him? Although you have been sleeping with him more lately, why is that?” He asked her quietly.

Sakura snorted. “If you think four times in a year is a lot I pity the woman you eventually convince to marry you Ita.” She said playfully.

Itachi smiled at the nickname. “Just an observation, the last two were less than three days apart if I’m not mistaken.” 

“You know you aren’t, why do you phrase things like that?” She was annoyed.

Itachi laughed a low deep laugh and smiled at her. He liked it when they joked like this, that they had become good enough friends to act this way around one another. There was once a time when she couldn’t stand him.

“Must be an Uchiha thing, as you say.” He leaned back on the sand, his arms folded behind his head and looked up to the stars.

“He’s giving you more freedom, I only wondered if it was because…” He purposely let his voice trail away into the dark, she could take it how she wanted. He wanted her reaction to gauge his next move.

“We aren’t having sex, it really is just sleeping together.” She leaned back and lay down next to him looking up into the night sky.

“I know.” He closed his eyes.

“Then why do you ask?” 

“It’s odd, understandable but odd.” He said.

“It isn’t for us. It’s odd when we don’t sleep together.” She said.

“Then why did you stop?” He was curious.

“Sasori.” She said and closed her mouth, swallowing his name down.

They lay silently side by side, neither one speaking. She needed a moment to collect herself.

“He told me that I needed to distance myself from him, to help him, help me.” She said.

“Has it helped? It seems like it has only caused more problems.” He observed.

“Sasori is gone..unless you think for some reason, he might be coming back for you?” Itachi opened his eyes and turned his head to her.

She swallowed hard. 

“Even if he did come back, he wouldn’t know who you slept with or how much. I commend your loyalty but it just seems...pointless to me to do all that, to make such an effort for someone who...isn’t even here.” Itachi watched her, he could see the crease in her brow, her indecision.

“Why? Why do you care, why say this to me?” She thought he had liked her, why would he tell her to sleep with Gaara…

“Just an observation. Life is too short for people like us. You should do what makes you happy.” He rolled over in the sand closer to her.

“I told you I haven’t given up on you but anyone with eyes can see what you and Gaara are to one another. I’m just going to sit back and wait, see how it goes. I’m here if you want me, if not...like I said friendship is good too. You’re one of a kind.” He leaned forward and kissed her on the nose and she giggled.

“People like us huh?” She smiled, he didn’t mean shinobi, he meant the elite, they tended to die either very young, or very old.

“I don’t pretend to understand you, or Sasori or Gaara for that matter, but...no one should live their life alone and there is a difference between love and friendship.” He got up and grabbed his sleeping futon from his pack, laid it out where he had been laying next to her and covered himself.

“I’ll take first watch.” He said and closed his eyes. 

Sakura watched his chest rise and fall, watched the black eyes of the crows sitting at the end of his bed, perched on his bag…

‘Friendship is different from love’, he had said. To anyone else she would have rolled her eyes, had they said such a thing to her. Itachi was different though. She knew what he meant. She loved Gaara, but did she love him like she loved...Sasori…

‘Sasori isn’t here’, no, he wasn’t. Gaara was though. She still wasn’t sure why Sasori had left, or why he had left without her when he had led her to believe that she meant more to him than a student, more than an apprentice. She thought that he might have...but obviously she had been mistaken. He had left her behind, even if he planned on coming back for her, it wasn’t because he loved her...not like she loved him.

‘If he loved you like that...he would have taken you with him. The way Gaara loves you...Gaara would never have left you behind’, the little voice, the logical part of her brain told her.

“Damn it.” She hissed to herself laying back into the sand.

Sakura didn’t sleep that night and was up and packing their camp before dawn.

Itachi sighed as he looked at her in the dawning light. She had darkened smudges under her eyes but he kept back anything he might have said when he looked into her eyes. Something had changed from the time he had closed his eyes to the wee hours of the morning. She had made a decision of some sort. He hoped it would bring her peace, whatever it was.

To their credit the small group didn’t complain, didn’t mope or groan at all and Sakura rewarded them with an extra twenty minutes for lunch while she explored the cacti along the edge of Roran. Itachi watched her in the distance as he ate with her students. He could feel a lightness in the air and wondered if it was a good omen of things to come or if it was just her good mood rubbing off on him. She seemed tired, but more relaxed since their talk the night before.

Her hand was halfway to an unusually rare sort of cactus when she felt his chakra signature. She stood up throwing her chakra out and around her like a cloud, letting it sink into the Earth...she closed her eyes, turned her head to the north, there…”Sasori.”

She could feel her blood pulsing in her veins...should she? She looked back to where her students sat with Itachi, did he know? Did he feel him too? Then, like a light, it was gone. Her fists clenched at her sides, he had masked his chakra, he had felt her and he had...ignored her. Rage filled her little heart, sadness and something viceral flooded her brain…”Damn it Sasori.” Her teeth ground together…

One step then two, she stopped...no. He didn’t want to see her, he didn’t want her to come to him...three years he had said, one year was halfway gone, two and a half years more...should she, could she convince him to let her….no….”Damn it.” She turned, one step and then another and before she knew it she was back beside them, back beside her students, beside Itachi, “Let’s go.”

They spent the rest of the day collecting, sealing and storing plants, fungi and roots she pointed out to her students. She barely talked more than was necessary, she didn’t look any of them in the eye and when night fell she laid her sleeping futon down without a word, laid down, rolled over and didn’t move until the next morning. She hadn’t even eaten dinner with them.

Itachi shook his head when one of her students opened their mouths. He stopped them in their tracks when one of them went to shake her awake, or to offer her coffee in the morning. His hand came down on her shoulder, she turned, “I’m awake.”

No more words were spoken. They packed their camp and walked back to Suna, stopping only once to sleep. Her silence was...deafening.

Her students bid her farewell at the gate. Itachi walked back to the manse with her and then to his own room in the VIP housing. She walked up the stairs to her room, set her bag down and looked around. ‘Sasori’s old room’, she pulled the scroll from her belt and opened it. One by one she sealed her belongings inside, one by one she took a step back and away, one by one she took a step forward toward Gaara, toward their future together.

‘There’s no guarantee he will come back’, she set her storage scroll on Gaara’s table in his sitting room. ‘What if he never comes back and you waited for him, for something that…’, she didn’t want to think anymore, she didn’t want to hope, to wonder, to feel…

Pulling a paper from Gaara’s desk she scribbled out a quick note that she would be back, that she was checking in on her things at her lab and laid it beside the scroll. He would know she had returned. She had felt his chakra pulse as soon as her foot crossed the main gate to Suna, had felt...his warmth, his love for her when she walked by the Kazekage’s office and looked up to see him looking down and out his window to where she stood looking up.

He must have been in a meeting, he must have had someone in his office to not have come to her immediately, she understood but he had made an effort, he had stopped what he had been doing to look out, to show her...he cared and that he was happy she was home, home with him.

She nodded to herself as she unsealed the door to her lab. She had made the right decision. Gaara was a good man and he loved her. It was time she gave him the love he deserved, the love he had been waiting for, had been patient for.

Sasori was gone and there was no guarantee he would ever come back. He had taken the doll, but left her letter...he hadn’t even opened it, couldn’t even take two seconds to read it...but Gaara...he was everything she had been looking for in Sasori, how could she have been so blind…

Sasori stood on the roof of the inn in Ishigakure looking south toward Suna. He had felt her chakra, had felt her pulling him to her, his desire to see her, to touch her had almost cost him dearly. 

He wasn’t alone, he couldn’t go to her. He had masked his chakra, had dropped it down to nil in the hopes of warning her, preventing her from coming to him and yet, part of him, the desperate part had hoped...she would still come. She hadn’t though, she had left the area. He had felt her moving farther and farther away, running to the Uchiha and home.

If Tobi had noticed anything, he hadn’t said it. 

Over the last six months Sasori had almost been able to block her from his mind, had almost been able to pretend he didn’t feel anything, had almost been able to let her go...until her letter. It had been on the table, next to the puppet that looked like her. He had gone to get it, to keep it beside him, to have her with him again if not in reality in likeness.

It had been stuck in the fingers, as though the puppet had written it for him herself. It had smelled of her, flowers and water, clean and pure like spring, like summer, like light in the predawn, a new beginning, of life…

His heart had clenched, his eyes had closed and he had sealed the puppet in it’s scroll leaving it to flutter to the ground. He couldn’t even bear to touch it much less read it.

‘She will understand, she will know, one day, when I come back for her, she will understand once I explain everything to her’, he promised himself, he told himself it was worth it, it had to be done and he had left.

Night fell around him and yet he stood looking out to the south , to the desert, to her. ‘Wait for me Sakura’, he whispered in his head. ‘I will come back for you’, his promises fell on empty air.

Nodding to his Anbu he left the Kazekage office and walked down the short flight of stairs to the road. Sometimes he used his sand teleportation, sometimes he jumped across the rooftops, but tonight he walked. She was back, she was safe and she was in her lab. He would see her later, perhaps she would consent to dinner with him in his rooms. The moon was out as he opened the doors to the manse, walked up the stairs to his rooms and removed the seals of protection.

There was a scroll and a note on his table. He looked around the room, but no her chakra was still at the hospital, in her lab. Hanging his Kazekage robes on the stand by the door he moved to sit on his couch and reached out for the note. He smiled, she had left him a note even though she knew he could tell where she was, always knew where she was, it meant something.

His eyes fell on the scroll. Reaching out he could tell it was full and wondered what she had brought him from her mission. Perhaps it wasn’t for him and she had just left it on the table in a hurry to get to her lab, he was used to that. He unfurled it over the surface of the table and pressed his chakra into it...clothes, books, weapons, shoes and all sorts of things popped out of the scroll, one after another falling and toppling off of the small table in abundance.

Gaara blinked and picked up a shirt off the top of the pile, Sakura’s shirt. He sifted through the mass of junk and realized, they were her things, all of her things.

“I’m home.” Her voice carried across the short space between them as she leaned her back up against the door to his sitting room, watching him.

Gaara looked up at her and back at her things that covered the table, realization hit him and he smiled.

“Welcome home Sakura.” He took the five short steps it took to pull her into his arms and buried his face in her hair, her neck, then kissed her soundly pulling her into him, with him to their bed.


	31. Chapter 31

It had been painstaking brutal work but he had done it. His chakra strings flickered out and faded away as the puppet opened her eyes, her green eyes...Sakura.

It had no concious, it had no...soul, but the eyes, her eyes, her hair it was so surreal so...close. His breath hurt his chest when he drew it in, his hand rose to cup the wood of her face, if only he could have...but no he wouldn’t...Sakura.

No voice, no voice was needed. The eyes shone brightly, they moved, they looked so alive, so real, so like hers, he leaned forward and ran his lips over the wood. Her chakra had been a gift, her intentions were still unclear but...he had used it to his advantage, like everything else he touched and had made it his, her...his.

The puppet blinked and smiled for him, at him. ‘This isn’t right’, part of his brain told him.

‘It isn’t her’, he ran his fingers up the side of the puppet, across the chest and over her breasts. Wood, it was wood. It wasn't real. He closed his eyes. It wasn’t her, it was a puppet, a poor substitute.

“Sakura”, Sasori hung his head.

Her eyes were open, the dawning of a new day catching the flecks of gold mixed with the green as she turned her head to the spiky red locks of Gaara’s hair, his face buried in her neck. It wasn’t real and yet, she could feel the beating of his heart against her own, could feel the rise and fall of his chest pressed up against hers...felt the tips of his fingers trace little circles around her belly button.

A kiss, that’s all she had given him last night. A touch here and there, that’s all she allowed him to take from her. His voice had been broken, his touch heated, his want clear pressing hard against her side as she let him hold her.

She still didn’t know what she wanted.

‘This is best, this is right, this is what I want’, she had repeated it over and over in her head until her mind had refused to repeat it again and sleep had found her. 

Desire and decision came flooding in on the rays of the sun, over the bed and falling over her like a calm, like the silence before death shows himself, before the end. This was the end. Was there nothing more to look forward to. She felt like she was dying.

‘Is this what love is’...she didn’t know. She didn’t know what love was. Love was red hair, amber eyes that were always just out of reach, always just...she felt so alone.

“Sakura.” Gaara moved beside her, pulling her closer, smothering her, his body was demanding, his touch gentle...it was so confusing. 

Everything was contradicting itself, it was such a fucking mess. She closed her eyes and willed away the pain. She was in love, she was happy, this is what made her happy, this is what…

‘Sasori’, a pain to her heart, one last breath and she opened her eyes. ‘He is gone’, she closed her eyes. ‘Gaara is here’, she opened her eyes turning to the Kazekage, her arms linked behind his neck, her lips parted and he bent to her mouth, slowly, testing, tasting her and she let him.

“I love you.” He told her.

“I’ve waited.” He groaned out against her skin.

“You’re so beautiful Sakura.” His hand slipped under her top and moved up little by little over her breast.

“Please.” He was begging her, his mouth dry.

She closed her eyes and nodded.

His eyes flashed yellow as she opened her eyes and looked at him. There was a look of triumph in their depths, of control lost, of dominance. He moved quickly, his hands over her skin, her clothes falling to the floor, his mouth was everywhere, the pressure building in her stomach as he pulled the covers back from her body.

“Mine.” He moved over her.

‘Wait’, her brain told her.

“Mine.” He bit her neck and held her body to his.

‘Stop’, her mind said.

“You’re mine.” He told her as he tossed his clothes on top of hers.

‘He said he would come back for you’, her heart betrayed her.

“You belong to me now.” He spread her legs apart with his knee, his hands fumbling at her waist moving lower.

“Gaara.” She said his name, a whisper, hesitant, scared...he stilled his movements, his hands fell away from her body.

“Wait.” She turned her head and his head dropped down , defeated onto her chest. He should have known better.

“Give me a little more time.” A tear fell from her lash, rolled down the side of her face to pool in the crook of her ear.

“I love you.” He said, his teeth grinding, willing his body to comply with her request.

She didn’t say it back, she couldn’t. 

“Please.” Her bottom lip quivered and he sighed.

Gaara nodded but didn’t move, he gathered her naked body to his, buried his face in her shoulder, pressed his hips up and moved against her.

“I will wait but you are mine now, no one else’s. I will not share you with him or anyone else, you’re mine Sakura, mine.” His fingers dug into the flesh of her arms possessively, his arousal hard against the entrance of her innocence, throbbing in silent demand.

Sakura nodded, she willed her hands to come up and around him, down his back and up again in a reassuring gesture of faith. ‘Touch is what he wants, has always wanted from us, he needs it, craves it, give it to him’, her mind told her. ‘Make this real, for your sake as much as his’.

Control, he had to maintain control. He was so close, so close to his goal, his dream of her, of him , them, so close. ‘She said wait’, he hissed at Shukaku who was trying to take control, he wanted the female, he wanted to take her to claim her fully, to break her.

‘We have waited long enough, I will not wait forever’, Shukaku hissed back at the boy.

‘Fool, don’t you understand she is ours now she is here of her own free will, she chose us! Give her a little more time. I will not have you ruin this for me, for us!’, Gaara was livid, why didn’t the raccoon understand, they had won, she was theirs, Sasori was gone and she had come to them, she wanted them, she loved them.

‘...and if he comes back before you can make her yours...if he returns for her in the meantime while you continue to ‘wait’ for her to be ready...you will lose everything.’, Shukaku taunted him with his greatest fear.

‘He won’t, he is gone’, but Shukaku had turned his back on him, refusing to listen to him further.

Gaara sighed, at least he was being silent.

She was trembling beneath him, her whole body was shaking he realized. “What is it Sakura, I stopped, you know I wouldn't force you don’t you?” He brushed a lock of hair back from her face with the back of his hand, gently, slowly.

“I don’t understand what I did wrong.” She whispered.

She was talking about Sasori and his chest tightened.

“Why did he leave me?” She was crying now.

Gaara’s fingers tightened around her arms and she gasped in pain.

“Why doesn’t he love me?” She couldn’t stop herself from speaking, she knew she should stop, she knew she was making Gaara angry but…

“Sakura.” Gaara was trying, he was trying so hard…

“Sasori.” His Uncle’s name slipped from her lips like a curse and something snapped in his head.

His voice was low, dangerous and dark…”How long Sakura, how long will I have to wait in his shadow, how long will you compare me to that man? Is my love not good enough for you, is my devotion to your every whim not clear? How long Sakura will you long for something that isn’t here when I am here in front of you pouring my heart out to you, you’re killing me, you're ripping me apart Sakura, can you not see how much I love you? Me! I love you, I’m the one who is here for you! Me Sakura!” 

His fists came down beside her head, the bed shook with his rage and then he exploded in a blast of sand so powerful it blew all of the covers off of the bed, his sand burning her skin as he disappeared. 

Sakura gathered the covers back up and around her naked body, her whole body shook, but not with fear, with self loathing. How many times had she hurt him, pushed him, how much farther could he go before he...she was a horrible person. Her eyes fell to their clothes on the floor of their bedroom...she was a horrible person. 

With her bottom lip between her teeth she turned her head out to the desert. Little bursts of sand exploded periodically over the dunes. He was venting. He was naked and venting in the desert. She bent over and picked her clothes up off of the floor and his. She dressed quickly then flickered out into the sand, out into the desert toward the exploding sand, toward the spiky red headed man that she owed an apology to, an explanation to.

Sweat dripped from his face as he stood panting, watching her approach. Silently he straightened his back, unabashedly looking at her in his nakedness.

Her hand rose offering him his clothes, he took them with a nod, dressed and sat down in the sand.

“I’m sorry Gaara.” She began and he shook his head.

“You don’t love me like I love you, do you Sakura?” He asked her, his voice was quiet, defeated.

“I do love you Gaara. It’s difficult to explain.” She was trying, he could tell.

“I love you Sakura... I can’t even understand how much I love you to put it into words. I need you but...I think I understand you just, you can’t let him go can you?” He hated himself right now.

“I want to let him go.” Her hair was covering her face, her voice was sad. “Like he let me go. I want to love you Gaara, like that.”

“...but you don’t, do you?” He had his answer.

“I want to.” She said again.

“We always do this, what is wrong with us…” He ran his hands over his face and through his hair in frustration.

“I will marry you on my sixteenth birthday as was planned. We will get married, it is what’s best for Suna.” She said quietly.

Gaara wanted to hit her, he wanted to shake her, to tempt him with this was just so cruel. He growled.

“I’ve been selfish.” She ignored his growling.

“I thought I could have something that was...unobtainable, that he would someday...I don’t know what I thought I guess I had hoped but I was so foolish, so foolish and so selfish Gaara.”

“Sakura don’t.” He growled, she needed to stop talking. This was killing him.

“I do love you, maybe not in the same way you love me but I do love you Gaara and Sasori did say that love would come, to find someone I respected, that challenged me, that I could love and…” She took his unresisting hand in hers.

“I will learn to love you Gaara. Forgive me for making you wait so long, for...not recognizing your feelings for what they were.” The tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.

She was forcing herself, he knew. She was saying this because she thought it was the best thing overall for all of them, for them, for Suna, could he let her do this, for him, for the village…

‘Again’, he thought to himself, he had pushed her too hard and had thought only of himself…

‘She came to you’, Shukaku reminded him.

‘Because she thought she was supposed to’, he told the tanuki.

‘She can’t make up her mind, make the decision for her’, Shukaku sat ridgid, his tail flicking restlessly back and forth behind him.

‘She will change her mind again and we will be the ones to get hurt’, Gaara said wisely. ‘She doesn’t know what she wants, she is confused’. Gaara insisted.

‘That’s why we will tell her what she wants. Tell her she wants us, she will be happy with us’, Shukaku insisted more forcefully.

‘What happened years from now when she realizes it was all a mistake and we have children and she decides she never wanted any of it, what then’, Gaara hissed.

‘It will be too late, she will be trapped’, Shukaku said smugly.

‘Is that how tanuki get their mates, they trap them’, Gaara scoffed.

‘How else do you get a good mate?’ Shukaku was genuinely perplexed by his words and Gaara rolled his eyes.

‘She needs time’, Gaara said firmly.

“It has only been six months, Sakura. Give it time. Stay with me in the manse. Keep your schedule. Take a mission once in a while. Take your time and I will do the same. Maybe, we can just be friends for awhile like we used to be, before life got so damn confusing, before my Father and Sasori had our futures planned out before we even knew what we wanted, before life got in the way.”

“Before we even knew what we wanted…” Her voice was small even to her own ears and he hated it.

“Both of us have always been told what we were going to be, who we would be and how we would get there...maybe...maybe we never had time to just be, ourselves.” Gaara almost laughed out loud.

“I was born to be Kazekage and I am. I was forced into being the one tail’s JInchiriki, my whole life was planned out for me before I was even born, before I had even taken my first breath.” He sighed heavily.

“I’m not better than my Father. I know this now.” He laughed then, the irony was too much.

“It seems like such a waste, pointless, without meaning.” She leaned against him.

“Why are we even here, for Suna? Maybe I should leave.” She said quietly.

“Leave?” He looked down at her surprised.

“Where would you go?” He frowned at her.

“Maybe I could go to Konoha, or maybe just go.” She waved her hand out over the desert.

“Find myself.” She whispered.

Gaara swallowed hard, the conversation was spiraling out of control...she was going to leave him.

“Find yourself…” He said for lack of anything else to say.

“I was born into a good family, stolen and sold into darkness. Sasori saved me and cast me into another world, a different world, one covered in blood. I wanted so badly to please him, to make him proud of me, to love me and he just…” She choked on her own words.

“Konoha isn’t my home, it is just another place to burden me with invisible ties that bind. Suna is...you are...I love you Gaara, but maybe I need to...it sounds so cliche but I think I need to find myself. I think I need to leave Suna.” She looked up at him.

“The treaties, the alliances…” He began.

“The hospital, the new children’s ward…” He asked her without asking.

“Were strings of a Puppet Master created to hold me down, to keep me where he wanted me, to bind me to Suna so I would be there when he returned for me at his leisure.” She said, the bitterness clear in her tone.

“When he returned?” Gaara’s eyes widened.

“He told you he was going to come back for you didn’t he? You knew and that’s why you...but then, why? Why come to me like that, why let me think that you...Damn it Sakura! How could you do that to me, knowing how much I love you, knowing that I…” He was hurt. Shukaku was howling.

“I never had a guarantee Gaara, he might not come back for me, he does what he wants without any care for anyone else, you know that as well as I do. Was I to wait, years, decades, hoping for something that might never come, when you were there, willing, loving, devoted to me? I thought I was making the right choice but I couldn’t even follow through with that. I’m such a fucking failure.” She hung her head, her chin resting on her chest.

“Go. Find the freedom you’re so desperately searching for, find where you belong. I’ll wait for you in Suna. You have four months before the students from our treaties with Bear and Keys come. If you never come back...two small nations will be the least of my worries.” He told the truth, there was nothing left between them but raw truth, love and brutal reality.

“Don’t. Don’t put that kind of guilt on me.” She whispered.

“You deserve it.” He growled and stood up. “You deserve my love and my loyalty. If he can’t give it to you, if you never find it with another and if you can never return it, I don’t fucking care, you’ll have it from me whether you like it or not.” He pulled her up by her arms and hugged her tightly to his body.

“My last gift to you.” He kissed her hard, spun her and pushed her away from himself.

She pressed her hand to his heart stepping back up to him.

“No matter where I am, my home is here. Don’t forget.” She stepped back and away from him again. “Thank you Gaara. You’re better than me, you know that?” She smiled at him.

Sakura turned, placed one foot, then another...walking out into the sand.

The wind rose around him, a storm was coming, the sand moved and breathed around him as her figure faded away into the desert. He stood there, he could still feel her after his eyes could no longer see her, moving farther and farther away from him...and then...like a flash of bright light, she was gone.

Shukaku’s roar could be heard for miles as the tanuki broke free of the restraints in Gaara’s mind. Gaara’s consciousness flowed to the recesses of his soul and watched with mild interest as the raccoon thrashed and raged, blamed him, scorned him...sand flying around in the storm, not from the wind but from his insanity...reality broke around him and he closed his eyes to the light. She was gone, he was alone again in the dark.


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love is blind and perception as well as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My reality is not yours, as yours in not mine...nor should it be.

_“The Konoha safe houses will be the last ones we visit, because they are the ones I use the most and have the most amenities.” Sasori told her as he released the seal of the stone door in the likeness of an old forgotten goddess._

_“You must be careful when coming here, to this specific one. While it has the most room, is the most luxurious of all the safe houses it is also in the most dangerous and most populated area of the Fire Country because it is so close to Konoha’s boundaries.” He told her, leading her to the back of the cave and down another natural corridor._

_“As such, there are two doors to release before you may enter and there are multiple exits each with their own seal with a different hand sign.” He continued down the corridor that was narrowing sharply._

_His redhead disappeared suddenly and she realized he had jumped down onto a small landing barely big enough for one person._

_“Come.” He reached up for her and she jumped down into his arms, her palms ghosting his chest, her hair falling into his face._

_“Sasori Kun?” She whispered his name as the dimness of the cave changed to an ominous black._

_“A genjutsu, nothing more dear, do not be afraid, I am with you.” His voice was close to her ear and she shivered._

_Light bloomed from his fingers as his chakra strings began to glow, he formed them into a ball in his hand and held them out before them feeling along the sides of the walls._

_“There is a trigger dear, a handle of sorts in the form of a lion’s head, the ‘King’, if you will.” He murmured to her as he searched._

_“The King?” She asked._

_“This cave is ancient, used long before your time, or mine. Some say it was used by the gods when they first fell to Earth, some say it is where they were buried, their mortal bones left behind as their souls ascended back to the heavens from which they came.” He smirked._

_“What do you say Sasori Kun?” She smiled at his whimsy._

_“I say it is a good cave and the rumors help keep my secrets safe, few will come here to look for me, or you for that matter. So while it is in a populated area and is hard to come and go without notice, it is also well protected by more than stone, more than jutsu and seals.” He smiled at her, a rare thing and her eyes shone brightly at his side._

_“Here girl, feel it there? The head of a lion, the head of a ‘King’.” He folded his hand over hers as she pulled up, the tip of her finger pricked by the needle he had placed in the mouth of the lion for his blood seal._

Sakura stepped through the second stone door, his second wall of protection from the outside world and looked around the first room of the eight she knew were there. For the first time she saw his safe houses for what they really were. He had said it to her once, long ago but it had never registered in her youthful mind...these were not safe houses, they were places to escape the realities of the world that he had been forced into, they were places to escape himself and what he had been forced to become. 

“How fitting for me to be here.” She ran her hand along the walls of the stone cave that made up the first natural room.

This had been her favorite out of all the places he had shown her. The cave ran along the natural tunnels of the volcano the mountain once was. The residents of Konoha called it, ‘The Valley of The End’. Sasori had called it, ‘The Beginning of The End’. It was all perception and she laughed a dry humorless laugh into the silence that surrounded her.

“You look like shit Gaara.” Kankuro pushed the pitcher of water that had been sitting on the table toward his brother who had unexpectedly joined him and Temari for dinner.

“She’s gone.” Gaara said, ignoring the pitcher of water pulling a bottle of spirits from the glass tray on the table toward himself.

Temari eyed her younger brother with apprehension, “You’re drinking?” She didn’t think this was a good idea.

“Is that a problem?” He poured a few inches of the golden liquid into a cup and drank it down quickly pouring himself another few inches.

Temari narrowed her eyes at Kankuro. ‘Do something’, they said.

Kankuro widened his eyes at his sister, ‘Like what’, he didn’t know what to do any more than she did.

Gaara drank the spirits down and poured himself some more, this time letting his hand rest against the glass, pausing, looking around the dinning hall.

“Did you say Sakura is gone Gaara?” Kankuro asked, for who else would Gaara be referring to.

“Yes.” He drank the liquid down, his hand falling gracelessly back onto the table, the glass falling from his loosened fingers, tumbling off to the side.

“Where did she go?” Temari was scared to ask, scared at how much Gaara had drank, scared to know…

“I dunno.” Gaara slumped forward in his seat, his spiky locks wet with sweat, dirty sand caked along one side of his face.

“Is she...coming back?” Temari asked.

“Dunno.” Gaara let his head fall onto the table in front of him with a small thud and closed his eyes.

Kankuro raised an eyebrow at his sister who shook her head furiously and pressed two fingers to her lips.

Gaara woke up alone several hours later with a horrible headache and a terrible taste in his mouth. He reached for the pitcher of water and upended it over his head, dropping the pitcher to the ground and laid his head back down on the table. Shukaku had been unusually quiet after his tantrum in the desert earlier that day after Sakura had left them.

Very slowly he rose from his seat at the table and walked back to his rooms. His eyes passed listlessly over his rumbled bed. He collapsed in a dirty heap onto the bedding and closed his eyes breathing in and out. Her scent was everywhere, laughing at him, torturing him. He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling.

“Sakura.” His lips moved but no sound came out.

His crows returned to him one by one with nothing. They couldn’t find her. She had disappeared. Itachi tapped his fingers against his knee as he sat on the balcony of the VIP housing for visiting nin and looked out over Suna. The sun was setting, where could she have gone. He had felt them in the Kazekage’s bedroom, had seen the sand exploding out in the desert and then...her chakra signature had disappeared and Gaara hadn’t returned to the village until evening, alone.

He still had five more months of his year long stay in Suna, hopefully she would return before he left because he didn’t want to have to tell her father that he had lost his daughter.

Sakura ran her fingers through the small puddle of blood by the drain in the third room, his workroom. He had been there recently...creating. The blood was fresh no more than two days old. She had felt him less than twenty four hours ago near the border, near Roran. Which meant, he had traveled here by seal...but from which safe house she wondered.

Her eyes made a quick sweep of the room. Nothing else out of place, nothing else to show he had been there recently.

“So like you Sasori, to leave just enough for me to know you were here but nothing else.” She continued her search through the rooms.

In his second workroom she found something amazing. Cylinders infused with chakra lined the shelves one on top of the other, hundreds of them, each labeled, each dated with a name, with a description.

“You’ve been busy Sasori.” She hummed as she read each one until she came to the end.

In a glass case there were two cylinders, one with the kanji character for ‘Scorpion’ and the other for ‘Cherry Blossom’.

She tried to lift the lid but it was locked, sealed no doubt. Cocking her head to the side she made the hands signs for several of the seals she knew he favored but none of them worked. She bit her thumb and smeared her blood over the top but nothing happened.

“Not for me then hum…” She moved to the end of the shelf where three other cylinders were resting end to end.

Sakura picked up the first one and turned it over in her hands. She could feel his chakra flowing around inside the vessel, feel his intent his...displeasure. The next one was more solid, more substantial and she weighted it in her hand rolling it palm over palm, it felt like guilt...the recognition was shocking to her, she set it down carefully by it’s brother and picked up the third, hesitating only for a fraction of a second.

It was light, like she was holding air and she closed her eyes. A smile formed quite unconsciously on her face as her thoughts raced around in her head. Laughter filled her ears and she realized it was her own, her...happiness. Sakura opened her eyes and was surprised but not alarmed to see a white glow surrounding her hand where it touched the vessel, the cylinder and she smiled, it was love...it was his love for her that she held in her hand.

Her lips trembled, her knees gave way and she crumbled to the floor, the cylinder clutched in both of her hands now, pressed over her heart.

“Oh Sasori, why...why didn’t you ever tell me.” Her head bent over the object of her affection, a vessel, an inanimate object of such refined purity it hurt her to look at it any longer and so she rose and placed his love back on the shelf, in between his guilt and his displeasure.

She shut the door as she left the room, it was too much for her to even contemplate at that moment. She didn’t even want to begin to try to understand why anyone would want to seal their emotions from their conscious self and place them on a shelf, much less how he had managed to do such a thing in the first place.

The next room was the library. This was her favorite room. Sasori had collected books and scrolls from all over the five great nations and every nation in between. His organization was impeccable and she marveled at several new volumes on the shelfs from unknown, unnamed lands. He had been busy in her absence.

She left the library with the full intention of returning later after she had checked every room in the labyrinth of tunnels that formed this safe house, this escape.

There was an exit up ahead, he had told her to only use it in an emergency, that the seal could not be reformed without him. Sakura heard the hum of his chakra as she approached the seal, it was the same as the last time she had been there, the first time she had been there. She turned to walk back down the corridor but something caught her eye, something pink and fragile.

Sakura bent her head to the small object resting on the shelf and pursed her lips in amusement. It was a branch from a cherry tree, a Sakura tree. The flowers had been in bloom when it had been cut and he had sealed it’s youth with his chakra so it would look as fresh as it had the day he had cut the branch from the main tree and made it his own, to set on the shelf in an old and ancient cave in the center of a volcanic mountain of eras long past. The symbolism was not lost on her as she fingered the delicate blooms with a soft smile.

“Would you seal me and place me on a shelf too Sasori Kun, to keep me forever young and by your side?” Her fingers trailed the sides of the cave walls as she walked to the next room.

Satisfied with her search she opened the door to the last room, his bedroom. Unlike the other caves that had no separate room for sleeping, this one had not only a bedroom but a bathroom. The bathroom was what she loved the most though, it was an onsen, a private onsen just for him, just for her. The water shone black against the volcanic rock, the black sand at the bottom of the wide pit glistened in the torches that sprung to life around the little cavern at her approach.

_“It’s a jutsu of my own design.” He told her._

_“The torches have a seal on the bottom see?” He pointed the seal out to her._

_“When the seal senses your chakra signature, they ignite and light the room. When you leave, your chakra leaves with you and they burn themselves out.” He smiled at her joy, he had wanted to share this with her for some time and now he had finally been able to show her, the onsen, the jutsu. He was pleased with her reaction._

Sakura moved her hand through the water and closed her eyes. It was hot, fed from a natural still active, volcanic spring deep within the ground. Sasori had told her that the spring used to overflow into a pool through the side of the mountain but he had sealed the crevice with an Earth jutsu and then had sealed that jutsu with a blood seal. Once again, he had taken something and made it his, without a care for any who might have cherished it before him.

“A selfish man Sasori, that is what you are, a selfish man.” Her voice floated along the surface of the water, rebounded off the walls of the cave and traveled back to her in a whisper.

‘Am I any less selfish though’, she asked herself thinking of how she had treated Gaara, how she had used him...unintentionally and with good intentions...but used him nevertheless.

‘We’re too alike’, she realized. She was just like Sasori wasn’t she? The thought did not sit well with her.

Sakura moved back into the main bedroom and sat on the end of the bed. When they had come here together, they had slept here, together, in this bed. She ran her palm over the silk of the coverlet. A fine thick silk, expensive to the touch. He had held her that night, like a brother or an Uncle but she could still feel his warmth on her skin as she laid down over the bedding, a trick no doubt, wishful thinking she told herself. ‘Pathetic’, she moaned.

When had she become so weak…

She rose from the bed and walked to the door. She wasn’t hungry, she didn’t feel like eating but she knew she should. As she passed the desk she saw a pad out, laying on the surface was a half written note, a pen laid down haphazardly across the pad. Sasori had been in a hurry? He never left things out, never left things to chance. She walked over to the desk and saw his familiar scroll, tiny precise markings, neat exact columns, Sasori.

There was no name, no indication to whom the letter had been meant for but as she read, her heart clenched and her face tingled, and her mind spiraled out of control.

_To say I love you, seems like such a lie. Those are words of the vain, the righteous and the privileged. Love is something few of us have but all of us desire. I have never believed in such frivolity, such a wasted emotion love. I never wanted it, still don’t and yet I find I can not escape it, not here, not you, but me. I am a selfish man. I take what I want and I wanted you. I took you without any regard for what you wanted. I took your words of innocence at face value never once thinking of you or your future._

_Forgive this cold soul. Forgive me._

_I am too proud to beg but I have no pride with you so I will ask, deliver me. Take this burden from my hollow chest and breathe your life into me for without you, I am dead. Without you I am nothing. So common are words, anyone can use them, everyone does, to say nothing, to express something and yet I find myself lost in them, in you._

_There are no words my dear, no words I can say that could possibly touch the fabric of my soul, the depth of my desire or the obsession of my heart that bears your name. Shame. Like the blood that flows from my touch, I wouldn’t dare touch you. Your heart is bloodied because I exist, your mind is warped because I am warped. I took you without your consent and called it saving. I am a fool, forgive me. I am a coward. I am pitifully lacking in every way when it comes to you and what you deserve._

_No one is good enough to stand by your side least of all me and yet I can not give you up, can not bear the thought , the slightest flicker of possibility of you with another than myself. I loathe myself because I love you. To adore you is my sin, a great sin among many I care nothing for, only you...only you were ever anything. Forgive me for loving you and not being worthy of your love._

_Please dear, I beg you __________

Her hand shook as she set the unfinished letter back on the desk. ‘Who was it for’, she dared not think it was for her. Fate was too cruel. She had come here to find herself and had found this. He loved someone and it wasn’t her. He loved someone passionately and it wasn’t her. 

“Sasori.” Her hands gripped the edge of the desk as she cried, her tears falling onto the letter.

She gasped and backed away. He’ll know, he’ll know she had been here, that she had read it and that she…

She ran, sealing the doors behind her. She ran through the woods blindly, her heart drumming in her chest, her fists clenched, tears streaming down her face...she ran until she wanted to collapse without any regard for her safety, without knowing where she was going, without masking her chakra. She ran.

Her foot missed the branch, she shot her chakra strings out to catch herself. Branches whipped her in the face, caught in her hair and she fell. She pulled on her strings, it wasn’t enough, her will was gone and her strings flickered out. She was falling and while she fell, before she hit the ground she thought, ‘How fitting’.


	33. Chapter 33

Instead of hitting the ground her body jerked as two arms grasped her into a tight embrace. Instead of grass and dirt against her cheek it was a warm masculine chest. Sakura blinked in confusion and looked up into the red eyes of Shisui. Shisui Uchiha, Shisui the Teleporter.

“Long time no see flower, grown a bit huh?” Shisui grinned down at her.

“Shisui.” Her voice cracked and her back stiffened in embarrassment.

Shisui dropped to the forest floor and set her down gently.

“What are you doing way out here Sakura, is Gaara with you?” Shisui stuck his hands in his pockets.

“I’m alone.” She looked around, she could feel them in the woods.

“Why is the rest of your team hiding from me?” She asked.

Shisui cocked his head to the side. Something was wrong, that much was clear, but it was just as clear that she didn’t want to talk about it. Her face was streaked with dried tears, there were scratches along the curve of her jaw and her posture was rigid, defensive and something else he couldn’t quite place.

“It’s okay guys, it’s just a Princess.” Shisui grinned at her and she managed an eye roll.

Two masked Konoha Anbu jumped down from the trees to stand beside Shisui. They didn’t bow, they didn’t speak at all, they just stood and looked her over, rudely.

Sakura scoffed. “Now I remember why I don’t visit Konoha that often, it lacks the warmth of Suna, in more ways than weather.”

“Warmth?” One of the masked Anbu laughed at her and she stepped back into a defensive stance.

The two Anbu immediately pulled weapons from their pouches and Sakura cast chakra strings at her sides.

“Don’t make me laugh.” Her lips twisted up into a threatened sneer as she narrowed her eyes at the two Anbu who dared challenge her.

“Easy guys, you don’t want to mess with this one. You’ll be dead before you could blink, and the only reason you aren’t dead already is because it looks like the Princess is having a bit of a rough day.” Shisui hadn’t moved but he had released his chakra.

“Princess?” The first Anbu asked incredulously.

“Don’t you listen? He addressed me twice as Princess. I’ve been spoiled it seems. Itachi and Shizune are much better company than these two, how do you stand them?” She asked Shisui who was grinning at her again.

“Eh, they aren’t so bad. They just don’t know you is all.” Shisui shrugged.

“Say hello to Akaitsuki no Sakura, Sakura of the Red Moon, boys.” Shisui nodded to the pink haired woman in front of them.

“You’re kidding.” The second Anbu choked while the first one just stared at her, his eyes widening slightly.

“Afraid not.” Shisui laughed.

“So, Sakura, were you running like a bat out of Hell for a reason or are you just happy to see me?” Shisui winked at her and she laughed.

“Like you said, I’m just having a rough day.” She smiled a little at him, it was a nice distraction.

“Well, I know the Hokage would love to see you and Shizune, come back to the village with us. I’ll buy you lunch. If you don’t mind my saying so, you look like you need it.” He walked over to her and threw his arm around her shoulder.

“That actually sounds good. Thanks Shisui. She looked up at him and he winked at her again, she laughed, this was just what she needed.

Minato was in the Hokage Tower looking at the stacks of paperwork on his desk when he felt her chakra signature. His head jerked up and he turned in his chair to look out the window. She was moving at a steady pace toward the village with...Shisui and his team who had been scouting the perimeter which meant they had met up with her and decided to bring her back themselves...odd.

The Hokage straightened his desk up a bit. She was his daughter but she was also the Princess of Suna and he didn’t know if she knew yet...about him and Naruto. Itachi had led him to believe she knew, Sasori knew but neither he nor they had confirmed anything yet, perhaps it was time to clarify that?

“Hokage Sama.” Shisui bowed to the Hokage, removing his arm from around Sakura’s shoulders to do so then putting it back over her shoulders when he had straightened back up.

Sakura inclined her head more or less politely and Minato’s mouth twitched.

“Hokage.” Sakura greeted him.

“Have you no respect? Bow before the Hokage of Konoha kunoichi.” The second masked Anbu growled at her.

“Do not speak above your station, shinobi. I am a Princess of Suna and if the Hokage doesn’t object, neither should you. Unless you think you know better than him, which contradicts your idea of respect.” Sakura replied shrewdly.

Shisui barked out a laugh slapping his knee with his free hand, “Got you there Sasuke. Sorry Sakura, my cousin is a little full of himself.”

“Cousin? Apple fell really far from the tree I guess.” She looked from Shisui to the guy named Sasuke.

“It is a pleasure to have you in Konoha Princess, to what do we owe this honor?” Minato smiled kindly at Sakura noting how much taller she was and how her face had lost the baby fat.

“An accident actually. Shisui saved me from a very embarrassing and what would have been a painful fall.” She looked up at Shisui and smiled.

“I was in the area collecting herbs when I was startled and foolishly ran, tripped and fell from the trees. As you know the desert doesn't have as many trees and I suppose I slipped.” She knew she wasn’t fooling anyone, but it was less embarrassing than the truth.

“Ah, well, Naruto will be pleased to see you, he talks about you all the time. I was just about to leave the office for lunch, would you like to join me? We could find Naruto if you like?” Minato rose from his chair.

“Shisui has already offered me lunch Hokage, perhaps another time?” Sakura inclined her head.

“Of course, of course. Well, how long will you be staying, should I send someone to guest housing to get an apartment ready for you?” Minato offered.

“Ah, well, I hadn’t thought about it um.” She looked up at Shisui who nodded. “I suppose I could stay, maybe for a few days.” 

“Great! I mean, that would be great, Naruto will be thrilled to hear that. I’ll let them know to expect you later then, go have lunch you two, enjoy and maybe I’ll see you a little later Sakura.” Minato smiled kindly at her.

“Thank you Hokage.” Sakura smiled a little and nodded to him following Shisui out of the office, followed by the rest of his team.

“Mind if I stop by the compound to change for lunch? My shift is over so I’m all yours for the rest of the day beautiful.” Shisui flirted with her shamelessly.

“That would be great, I’ve never seen the Uchiha compound before. Itachi has told me all about it of course.” Sakura hummed her interest.

“How do you know Itachi?” The guy named Sasuke asked her suspiciously.

“He is teaching me high level genjutsu, how do you know Itachi?” Sakura asked him.

“High level genjutsu? You? He’s my older brother.” Sasuke looked her over rudely.

“Is this guy for real?” Sakura turned to Shisui who had clearly been trying hard not to laugh at their exchange.

He couldn’t hold it in anymore, the expression of annoyed surprise on Sakura’s face was just too much for him and he burst out into peels of laughter.

“Sasuke takes a bit of getting used to. Feel free to put him in his place Princess.” Shisui grinned at her again and ruffled her hair, much to her annoyance.

“I should send word to Itachi, I’m supposed to have a lesson with him tomorrow morning and I’m not going to make it.” She grinned...it was infectious.

“I got ya covered flower.” Shisui summoned a crow and whispered in its ear, lifted his arms and watched the crow fly off, West, toward Suna. “I told him to tell the Kazekage too, I assume you left...abruptly?”

“We can talk about it at lunch, your cousin won’t be joining us will he?” Sakura looked behind her at Sasuke who scoffed.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, I have better things to do.” Sasuke jumped to the nearest rooftop and ran off ahead of them.

“Jerk.” Sakura muttered under her breath making Shisui laugh again.

“He’s not as bad when you get to know him, but he lacks the charm Itachi and I were gifted with.” Shisui threw his arm over her shoulder again as they walked through the front gates of the Uchiha compound.

Heads turned to watch Shisui with the pink haired foreigner walk through the compound to his house.

“Just ignore the whispering, they don’t have a lot to talk about around here.” Shisui led her up the short steps to his house and slid the door open for her, gesturing her inside.

“Thank you.” She walked into the dip in the floor and took her boots off.

“Make yourself at home, I’ll just be a second.” Shisui waved to the large living space where there was a couch, table, T.V, and a few lamps.

Sakura wandered over to some pictures that were hung on the wall. She recognized Itachi immediately. There were several pictures of Shisui and Itachi together, at the park, eating dango, sparing and laughing, always laughing. 

It was so different from her own family pictures where Gaara was staring down the camera like he wanted to kill it, Sasori was half out of the picture walking away, Temari and Kankuro looked nervous and she always had her eyes closed.

‘Was this what ‘normal’ was?’, she wondered.

“Sorry about that.” Shisui came out of the back room, presumably his bedroom, pulling a wide neck collared shirt over his head, a clean pair of pants on, his face washed.

“I’m sorry, I should have told you, you can use the bathroom if you want to uh...wash your face.” He smiled at her.

“Do I look that bad?” She laughed, she had forgotten she had fallen out of the trees after running blindly through the forest.

“Not at all flower, but you do have a smudge here.” He poked her cheek and she swatted his hand away laughing.

“Uh, thanks.” She stepped around him to his bathroom to wash her face.

Sakura shut the door behind her and looked at her reflection in the mirror. A smudge, was an understatement. There was grime all along the edge of her jaw, her hair had leaves and small bits of bark in it, her eyes were puffy from crying and there were a number of small scratches on her left cheek. She sighed and pulled the elastic from her hair.

“Shisui? Can I use your brush?” She called out to him through the door.

“Yeah!” She heard him call back.

“Thanks!” She shouted and picked up his brush.

Ten minutes later she had her face washed, her hair brushed and smooth falling down her back and she felt a hell of a lot better.

“Thanks Shisui. I needed that.” She smiled at him.

“No problem Sakura. So, I recall you liked that ramen place when you were here last time, we could go there if you want or there’s a really good place on the other end that serves the best fried squid.” He slid his door open for her and they left his house walking toward the market.

Itachi had just closed the door to his rooms when he heard the tapping on his balcony window. Walking to the sliding glass doors he smiled as he saw one of his and Shisui’s shared summons.

“Hey Karasu, how is Shisui?” Itachi asked, the summons.

“He is fine. The Suna Princess is in Konoha with Shisui, he found her running through the woods to the West of the village border while on patrol with his squad. He would like you to tell the Kazekage, he is under the impression no one knows she has left Suna.” Karasu said in his deep calm voice.

“Ah, I see. I will let the Kazekage know where the Princess is, thank Shisui for telling me. Did he tell you how long she planned on staying in Konoha?” Itachi asked the crow.

“He didn’t say. I will find out. If there is nothing else?” The crows tilted his head.

“Tell the Princess that leaving the county does not excuse her from her training. I want her to train with Shisui in my absence.” Itachi smiled thinking of how Sakura would react when his message was relayed to her by their summons.

“Very well.” Karasu bowed his head and flew off East, toward Konoha.

So, Sakura left Suna, and went to Konoha. ‘Running through the woods’, interesting. Slipping his shoes on he left his rooms to find the Kazekage.

Itachi found him on the platform outside of the Kazekage;s office, his hands behind his back linked at the fingers, his robes billowing out behind him in the desert wind.

“Kazekage Sama.” Itachi bowed low to Gaara.

“Yes?” Gaara turned, his robes moving with him, pressing against his legs with the change of his position as he faced the Uchiha.

“I have just received word via my summons that I share with my cousin, Shisui Uchiha. The Princess is in Konoha, he wished for me to inform you of her whereabouts as he was under the impression, you might not know she had left Suna.” Itachi clasped his hands behind his back.

“I was aware she had left Suna. I was not aware she had gone to Konoha. Did your cousin tell you how long...she would be staying in Konoha?” Gaara asked.

“He did not but I asked my summons to find out for my own curiosity. I would be happy to share that information as well as any other information that comes back with my summons about the Princess with you Kazekage Sama.” Itachi inclined his head respectfully to Gaara.

“Thank you Uchiha. I would appreciate that.” Gaara turned back around dismissing Itachi.

Itachi inclined his head once more and jumped from the platform to the rooftop next door running back to his rooms to wait for Karasu to return with the information both he and the Kazekage wanted on Sakura.

‘Konoha, I thought you didn’t want to go to Konoha Sakura’, Gaara clenched his fists in his robes as he looked out over his village. ‘At least she is safe’, he closed his eyes. 

He had thought she would go to one of those damned safe houses of Sasori’s, apparently he was mistaken. He unclenched his fists. Relief spread through his veins...she wasn’t looking for his Uncle. She hadn’t left him to go find him. ‘Thank kami’, he opened his eyes again, suddenly the village looked a little brighter.

“Thank you for lunch Shisui, it was really good.” Sakura was feeling better now, the village of Konoha was a wonderful distraction, Shisui’s sunny demeanor even more so.

“It was my pleasure Sakura. So what’s on the agenda, can I escort you anywhere else?” He smiled at her as they walked through the market, no destination in mind, just wandering about enjoying one another’s company.

“Not really, I wanted to stop by the hospital while I was here though. I wanted to ask Tsunade about her Yin seal. I have an idea of how it’s done but I wanted to check a few points out with her before I attempted it myself.” She could see the top of the hospital from where they were in the market and started walking in its direction.

“Her Yin seal, you sure know how to aim high flower, she’s the only one who has that seal, even Mito Uzumaki’s seal wasn’t as strong as Lady Tsunade’s seal.” Shisui whistled his appreciation for her moxy.

“I have my reasons for wanting to learn it, aside from it’s obvious benefits.” Sakura said absently as they climbed the stairs to the hospital.

“Yeah? What’s that?” Shisui asked her curiously.

“To protect someone I love.” She smiled at him. “Gaara and possibly Naruto.”

“Naruto?” Shisui was surprised.

“I said possibly.”

Shisui laughed.

“Sakura!” Shizune’s voice cut through the chattering noise of the reception area.

“Shizune!” Sakura ran to her old friend and now colleague, hugging her roughly against her.

“What a surprise! What brings you here?” Shizune asked her.

“Well I came to see Tsunade. I wanted to ask her a few questions about her Yin seal, is she here?” Sakura looked around but couldn’t see the busty blonde anywhere.

“She’s in her office, follow me.” Shizune looked past Sakura at Shisui.

“I’ll see you later Sakura, you’re in good hands I see, come find me later if you’re bored for dinner okay?” He waved and walked down the hall and out the door leaving Sakura with Shizune.

“Bye!” Sakura called out but he was already gone.

“Come on Sakura.” Shizune smiled at the girl. “What a nice surprise, did you come all this way just to ask Lady Tsunade about her seal, it’s a few days journey isn’t it?”

“I was in the area for something else and thought I would drop in. I’m only going to be here for a few days.” Sakura explained.

“Well, it is great to see you. Lady Tsunade will be pleased to see you.” Shizune opened a large door at the end of the main hallway and ushered Sakura inside.

The blonde behind the large desk lifted her head and honey colored eyes met green. A wide smile spread across the older woman’s face, “Sakura, what a surprise.”

“It seems to be the theme for the day, I should drop out of the sky more often.” Sakura smiled at the woman.


	34. Chapter 34

Sakura sat on the bed in the guest apartment Minato had arranged for her to stay in while she was in Konoha and looked down at the scroll Tsunade had given her. It was a scroll of Tsunade’s own making, not an original, but one she told Sakura she could keep and take home with her. It was extremely generous and she wondered if Tsunade knew who she was to her. A conversation for later perhaps.

With excitement, Sakura unsealed the scroll and spread it out over the bed.

...Two hours later Sakura lay back on the bed exhausted.

Sakura looked back at the scroll on the bed. She was doing it correctly, it would just take time and patience to store up enough chakra to one specific point on her head, her forehead to be exact, enough to create the seal. She could do it, after all she had the genetic predisposition.

She pulled a soldier pill from her pouch and popped it into her mouth. If she took one every three days she could store more chakra, more quickly and have the seal in...she hummed to herself, six months with luck. She nodded to herself, it was a solid plan.

While she was here she might as well stock up on the things she couldn’t get back in Suna like Nara deer antlers for her soldier pills and a few other luxuries that Suna simply didn’t carry. She was halfway to the market when she felt his chakra barreling down the street toward her. Smiling, she stepped aside at the last minute and Naruto stumbled, falling to the ground at her feet.

“Sakura!” He whined.

“You did that on purpose.” He complained.

“Of course I did Naruto.” She stuck her hand out to help him up and he took it grinning like a loon.

“It’s so great to see you! My dad told me you got here a few hours ago, so you missed me huh?:” He drew her into a bone crushing hug.

“I was in the area.” She smiled at him.

“I need some Nara antlers, want to come with me?” She asked him, resuming her walk to the market.

“Sure!” He fell into step beside her, his hands clasped behind his head.

They found the deer antlers easily. She bought enough to last her a few months at least and ordered more to be sent to Suna when more came in stock. Naruto followed her through the market telling her about his last few missions, asking her questions about the academy and how her students were, it was nice, it was normal, it was relaxing.

“I will have two new students from both Bear and Keys the first of the year, so I will be pretty busy then. The ward for the children’s hospital should be completed by then as well. I’m going to have to overlap my duties, the students will get hands on training under my supervision, it will be good for everyone.” She told him her plans for the next year.

Naruto being Naruto he asked about the one person she really didn’t want to talk about.

“So is it weird, ya know, not having that creepy guy around anymore? Sasori or whatever his name was?” Naruto asked.

“No.” She said, her shoulders slumped and she sighed.

“Sakura, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” Naruto felt like an idiot.

“It’s fine.” She said.

He rubbed the back of his head self consciously. “Hey so, my dad, he wanted to know if you wanted to come over for dinner before you left. You’ll be here for a few days right?”

“Yeah.”

“Sakura. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything about Sasori, it must be really hard for you.” Naruto felt terrible.

Sakura sighed. “It is hard but...it’s for the best too.” She wasn’t used to talking about her feelings with anyone except for Gaara.

She hadn’t really talked about her feelings with Sasori, he wasn’t the...talk about your feelings type. She frowned, why did she miss him so much? Was it really that bad he was gone? Guilt immediately flooded her senses and she coughed, choking on the lump in her throat.

Naruto watched the girl in front of him, clearly she was having a hard time. She had lost her adopted dad and her mentor all in one day, her best friend and brother had immediately become Kazekage and depended on her help to run a village and they were only two years older than him. 

It was a lot for a kid he thought to himself, but Sakura had never really been a kid, she never acted like any of the kids he knew. She was always so serious, so threatening, kinda scary. He wondered for a moment if she had ever gotten to just be a kid, to just be...her, not some elite shinobi, not some child assassin, but just a child.  
“So dinner? How about tomorrow night huh?” Naruto asked her.

“Yeah, that sounds good Naruto.” She tried to smile at him.

“Great! What else did you need to buy?” He asked her as they continued down the crowded market streets.

A few hours later and a storage scrolls full of purchases Sakura thanked Naruto and shut the door of her temporary apartment. She had gotten a dress for Temari, a few books on cacti for Gaara, who enjoyed his small little garden next to the manse and a new black jumpsuit for Kankuro.

Sakura sat on the balcony of the apartment, a light wrap around her shoulders, Konoha was a little cooler than she was used to, and pulled a book from her pouch that she had purchased while in the market with Naruto. It was a book about the history of Konoha.

She had never been interested in where she had come from before, not caring about it, too caught up in either Gaara or Sasori at the time, but now...she was more than a little curious. Being raised in Suna she was more familiar with her Suna heritage but knew close to nothing about her Konoha ties. She knew the names and the basics of course but the history of the village and the part her bloodlines played in it specifically, no, she didn’t know that.

Minato stood on the roof of the building next to the apartment he had set Sakura to stay in while she was in Konoha. He watched her through the window while she read. Over the years he had received Intel reports on her activities, had worried about her after Rasa had been murdered, for he knew...it wasn’t suicide. Itachi hadn’t said but a man like Rasa...no he knew it had to be murder and it had to have been Sasori, he was the only one there with Rasa when he died according to Itachi.

Personally, Minato was glad the Puppet Master had left Suna. The man made him more than a little uncomfortable. He didn’t think he would hurt Sakura, he could tell there were strong feelings underneath the surface but there was something about the way the man looked at his daughter, the way his eyes were always watching her...maybe it was his fatherly instincts, Sakura being a girl but it just made Minato very wary of the man.

He had wondered how she was doing and was thankful Itachi had been there when all the changes had taken place. Itachi had sent him weekly reports with as much detail as he could. She was struggling, she was confused but she was strong and she was trying. It was all he could hope for. Minato hadn’t expected her to show up in Konoha unannounced, it had been a surprise and a wonderful one at that, but at surprise all the same and he wondered at it.

Shisui said he had found her in the woods. From her own mouth she had said she had been running and ‘tripped’, a lie of course and he wondered what had really happened, if it was embarrassment or if it was more life threatening than she let on. What skilled elite shinobi tripped over a branch while running through the forest...none. He leaned back against the air vents of the roof he was standing on and continued to watch her read her book on the history of Konoha. He was pleased she wanted to learn more about the other side of her family. He wanted to talk to her, to tell her everything he knew but wasn’t sure if she was ready.

Itachi had never said but Minato could read between the lines. It was likely the girl already knew everything, he was sure Sasori knew everything, the man was too well informed for his own good. Rumor had it he had joined the Akatsuki.

Minato frowned. That had been a surprise. Sasori hadn’t seemed like the kind of person to follow anyone’s rules but his own and with his brother gone, he had free reign over both Gaara and Sakura. It hadn’t made sense for the man to leave, there was more to that story Minato knew but he had no way of finding out. Through Itachi’s reports it was clear, Sakura had no idea why the man had left and she was probably the only person in the world who would know, if anyone knew.

Again, he worried for his daughter, there wasn’t a lot he could do for her but be there for her, if she needed him, if she wanted his help. He had decided after she had left his office, he would tell her at dinner, break the silence. Naruto deserved to know the truth, they had both kept it from him for too long. Minato sighed, this wasn’t going to be easy, his boy wouldn’t take this news very well. He would be overjoyed about having a sister but, he would be angry they had known...and not told him. 

Understandably so but...Naruto had a big mouth. Hopefully the boy would understand it had been for Sakura’s protection. She was older now, more skilled, she could take care of herself. It was time. Minato put his hands in his front pockets and turned to leave but a flash of white dropped down beside him from the second roof over.

“Minato sensei.” Kakashi eye crinkled at him.

“Kakashi, it’s been decades since I’ve been your sensei, you can stop calling me that, it makes me feel old.” Minato smiled at the man.

“Habit. How is she?” Kakashi turned to look at Sakura through the window of the apartment like Minato had been doing before he arrived.

“She seems alright. Shisui found her in the woods on the border of the forest of Konoha. She seemed to be running to or from something, there were no specifics.” Minato told him.

“Poor kid. It must be hard for her. Sasori of The Red Sand wasn’t known for his sympathy and from what little I saw of their interactions, he had passed that trait onto his students. She probably doesn’t have anyone to talk to about what she’s feeling, and probably doesn’t want to.” Kakashi said looking out over the roof away from the window thinking of his own tragedies.

“I’m going to tell her, tomorrow night, or whenever she comes over for dinner.” Minato didn’t have to tell Kakashi what he was going to tell her, he already knew. He had been the one to tell Minato he had found her, his daughter in Suna those years ago.

“Are you sure, you wouldn’t want to add more fuel to the fire Minato. Are you sure she can handle it?” Kakashi warned, not sure if it was the best idea, she hadn’t seemed to be handling her current set of problems well already and to add a Father and a brother into the mix seemed almost cruel to him.

“Maybe it would help her, to know she has people that she can turn to other than the people she has in Suna, maybe it would be better for her to talk to us about how she feels, easier since we aren’t from Suna.” Minato speculated.

“Who said she wanted to talk about her feelings at all?” Kakashi had a bit more experience with this than Minato did, even if the man was a genius and older than him.

“Just think about it. If you do tell her, maybe tell her without Naruto there, he might make it worse for her. Tell him after she leaves maybe if you want him to know. I agree he should know, but he has a tendency to overreact and I don’t think that will go over well with Sakura.” Kakashi gave his opinion freely with a shrug of his lanky shoulders and slouched off to the next roof and away.

Minato considered Kakashi’s words. He had brought up a point Minato hadn’t considered. Maybe she didn’t want to talk about her feelings at all because she didn’t know how she felt. He would be putting her on the spot, embarrassing her...she would close up on him...he bit his bottom lip. Kakashi was right. He would wait and tell her alone, that he knew she was his daughter, and tell Naruto after she left. He could always go and visit her in Suna if he wanted, after he knew.

His Father’s journals sat on the table in front of him. He hadn’t meant to wait so long to read them. Part of him admitted he was a little scared to read them for fear of what secrets he might learn, but another part of him was excited...to find out what secrets he might learn.

Gaara picked up the oldest notebook and opened the cover.

A few hours later Gaara closed the last notebook and set it down carefully on the table.

“I understand now Uncle...why you are the way you are but Father... If they speak your name it will only be to ask who you were because generations from now...will never know you name Father. I will erase your existence, strike your name from every record, every mouth in Suna for what you had planned to do to Sakura, my Sakura.”

Gaara rapped his fist on the table and two Anbu leapt through the window to bow before him.

“Yes Kazekage Sama.” 

“I want you to find a man for me. Find the man known as Orochimaru, he is one of the legendary Sannin. Find him but do not approach him. I only want to know where he is, for now.” 

Gaara waved his hand and the Anbu dispersed.

He picked up his Father’s journals and threw them into the fireplace, lit a match and watched them burn.

Sasori stepped through the second door of his safe house in the Land of Fire, his largest and most accommodating one. He ran his hand over the Lion’s head and paused. He felt it, it was faint but he could feel her chakra surrounding the latch. Sasori closed the door behind him and looked around the first room. She had been here.

‘Why’, she knew this one was harder to get in and out of and he knew Gaara had kept her in Suna since he had left. She hadn’t gone on any missions, just a foraging mission...he had been watching her from a distance, making sure she was safe. Why would she come here, so far away from Suna...

He threw his thing he had been carrying to the floor and walked quickly to the bedroom where he had left his notebook on his desk. He had been in such a hurry he hadn’t had time to put it away before he had left...if she had been here, if she had read his letter to her… his heart clenched painfully in his chest.

Sasori lifted the notebook from its place on the table. It was crooked, the pen was on the floor...there were two water marks on the surface, dried but clearly they had fallen there by accident...tears, the word came to him. He set the notebook down, turned and walked out of the room toward his work room, toward his storage room for his lab.

Along the far wall where he kept his cylinders, he moved slowly to the end where his glass box rested, the two most important things he had ever created sitting side by side behind the locked glass. He ran his hands over the surface, over the smear of blood. She had tried to open it...did she know what they were?

His eyes flickered to the other side of the glass case. Her chakra was there, he could feel it without even touching the cylinders. She had held them, she had felt them, she had…”Sakura.” He leaned into the shelf resting his head against the cool wood grain and lifted the middle cylinder up in one hand pressing it over his heart. Yes, he felt it, she had held it, just like he was now...she knew...she knew now, how much he loved her.

‘Did she understand though’, that damned voice in the back of his head protested. She knew him better than anyone else...she must understand after reading his letter to her. A letter he had never meant to send. A letter he had written when he had been alone, missing her, longing for her voice to fill his ears, wanting to see her face, to feel her soothing chakra in his presence, to touch her...a letter he had never intended for her to read and now she had but did she understand it, did she really know how much she meant to him…and how did he feel about her knowing...

Sakura’s stomach growled at her as she laid sprawled out on the bed after reading her book. She flopped over resting her chin on her hands as she looked out her window. Her babysitters had left a few hours ago and she wondered if it was just curiosity or something else that had brought her Father and the Copy Nin to stand on the roof next to hers. She had expected it so she wasn’t too bothered.

Briefly, she wondered what Gaara was doing and if he was upset at her for leaving now that he had had more time to think about it. Did he understand, he must...he hadn’t sent anyone after her to bring her back...but he knew better than to do that. First of all if she didn’t want to be found, she wouldn’t be and secondly, if she was in a bad mood, she would have killed the messenger.

She laughed to herself at the thought and hopped off the side of the bed to put her shoes on. She would go to the market in search of food, or maybe Shisui.

He hadn’t been looking for her but he had noticed the pink hair as she stepped out the front of the apartment building in the guest housing. It was so bright, so different, it was hard to miss. Her hair wasn’t the only thing that had caught his eye though, her walk, the way she held her shoulders was...confident, a sort of confidence that he knew came with experience and he wondered if all of the rumors he had heard about her were true.

They said she killed a whole village at the age of six, had been sent on solo assassin missions by the age of seven and had earned the title Puppet Master not long after that. He could barely believe it from looking at her, confident walk notwithstanding, she looked so frail and fragile...it was the hair he thought...and the eyes. He slid off the tree branch he had been reading in and fell into step alongside her.

She must have known he had been watching her, she didn’t flinch, she didn’t move or show any indication of surprise...was she truly that skilled to have sensed his presence among so many in a village that wasn’t her own? She fascinated him.

Sakura rolled her eyes in her head and ignored the idiot next to her as she turned left toward the market and the food district.

“Getting dinner?” Sasuke tried to make small talk.

“Obviously.” Sakura sighed, she didn’t want to talk to him.

“How is it obvious?” He was annoyed by her casual rejection, he wasn’t used to it.

“Why did you ask if it wasn’t, do you always start your conversations off by asking the person if they are getting dinner?” 

“You’re rude.” He told her.

“Then don’t talk to me.” She stopped with her hand on her hip and glared at him.

“I just wanted to know what you were doing.” He glared back at her.

“You’re annoying.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and flickered to the other end of the market away from him.

Sasuke stood in the middle of the street, his hands in his pockets, frowning where she had stood just a moment ago.

“She’s out of your league cuz.” Shisui dropped his arm around his younger cousin’s shoulders and grinned in his face.

“I just wanted to talk to her.” Sasuke kicked a rock that was in his way. As he shrugged Shisui’s arm off his shoulder and walked into the market district.

“She isn’t like those fan girls that follow you around swooning over your dark good looks Sasuke, leave it be, you’re playing with fire.” Shisui winked at his cousin and flickered off to the other end of the market where he could feel Sakura’s chakra signature at the Tteokbokki stand.

“You’re little cousin, Sasuke, he’s really annoying Shisui.” She hadn’t bothered to turn around as she spoke to him, she knew he was there and she knew he knew she knew it.

“Genetic flaw I’m afraid.” He shrugged and ordered his own Tteokbokki.

“Mind if I eat with you flower?” He followed her to the park and sat down beside her on a bench by the training grounds.

“I was going to see if you wanted to eat with me actually but your little annoying cousin found me first.” She smiled at him.

Shisui laughed. “Most girls think he’s hot, personally I don't see it.” He picked up one of his spicy rice cakes and popped it into his mouth whole, it reminded her of Gaara.

“Sooo flower, want to tell me the real reason you fell out of the trees when I found you earlier today?” He gave her a knowing look.

“It’s nothing really. I was venting, my mind was elsewhere and I fell.” It wasn’t a lie, but they both knew it was a vague answer.

“I can only imagine. How is the Kazekage doing? He’s the youngest Kage ever, it must be hard.” Shisui said.

“He was born to it, he is doing well.” She took a bite of her rice cake, it was really good and she took another quick bite.

“I hear you’re doing really well too but the pressure.” He whistled. “I can see how you needed to vent.” He dropped an arm over the back of the bench and played with the ends of her hair.

“Itachi tells me you’re doing well with the genjutsu lessons he is giving you.” 

“Really? He never told me that.” It wasn’t unusual to her, Sasori had rarely told her how well she was doing, he only told her when she asked...and sparingly.

“He says you push yourself too hard, that you’re reckless and expect too much from yourself, but he doesn’t have a lot of room to talk. He’s the same way.” Shisui laughed and tugged on the ends of her hair playfully...again, it reminded her of Gaara.

“He is a good teacher, he listens to me at least when I tell him not to go easy on me or ask him questions, he actually answers them.” Sasori didn’t always answer her questions, he actually spent most of his time avoiding her questions. 

She frowned. How come she had never realized that before. ‘Duh, you’ve always only ever been in Suna, always only ever talked to people in Suna, you never had anyone else to compare him to except for Gaara, and those two...are too much alike’, her inner voice scolded her.

“He’s patient.” Shisui nodded his agreement.

“He is a good friend.” 

“Itachi would be pleased to hear you say that.” Shisui grinned at her, pleased himself, that she was showing a softer side of herself to him.

Shisui lifted his head, he could see a small black dot in the distance. “Speaking of… here’s my summons now with word from your friend.” Shisui pointed to the crow that was coming in fast and landed on his arm taking a rice cake from his bag without asking.

“Hey!” Shisui tried to snatch the rice cake from the bird but the bird had already gulped it down.

“I told Itachi what you asked, he says to train the princess in genjutsu while she is here. He wants to know how long you will be gone.” Karasu turned to Sakura.

“Just a few more days. Maybe five or six total. I have somewhere I need to go before I go home.” Sakura tapped her foot against her other knee. “Could you give a message to the Kazekage for me, Karasu, please?”

“I will.” The crow bent a leg to her and she smiled.

“Thank you, could you please tell Gaara I will be home sooner than expected, no more than seven days, instead of the four months he allowed...and that...I miss him.” She smiled a little smile, a shy almost embarrassed smile at the crow who nodded and flew away before Shisui could add his own message.

“That’s gratitude for you! He eats my rice cake and flies off to deliver your message before I can tell him anything else.” Shisui shook his fist in the air to the disappearing crow and Sakura giggled.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three blind mice...

Naruto looked from his dad to Sakura. Something was going on and he didn’t know what it was but he knew it was big and that they both knew but he didn’t.

“I hope you like kaiseki, um I had help with it of course, I thought something special would be nice.” Minato was a little nervous.

Sakura had been to dinner before but this was different. She was older now and he knew he had to make a better impression if he wanted her to stay with him and Naruto, or at least want to come back and visit them more often than once every two years.

“It’s fine.” Sakura looked around the house.

She had been there before but she had never been interested in their family history before now...and she was looking for family photos, like the ones she had seen in Shisui’s house.

“Are you...looking for something Sakura?” Minato had noticed her looking around.

“Oh uh, I was just wondering if you had any family photos, Shisui had a lot of photos in his home and I just wondered if that was typical of Konoha houses. It isn’t common in Suna, or at least, it isn’t in the Kazekage’s house.” She told him.

“You want to see photos? Of our family? Why were you in Shisui’s house?” He was pleased and more than a little surprised, but he didn’t like that she had been in Shisui Uchiha’s house...alone.

Before he could ask her anything else, and before she could answer him Naruto jumped in.

“We have tons of photos!” Naruto jumped up from the table and ran to the book shelves pulling out three large photo books.

“Those are just a few, there are more if you want to look at...older ones.” Minato added tactfully.

Sakura nodded, opening the first photo album Naruto had handed her.

There were photos of Naruto as a baby, pictures of Minato and Kushina, her mother, smiling at the camera, pictures of other people she had never seen before. She turned page after page until she came to an old photo of Tsunade and who must be Dan.

“That’s my mother, Tsunade and her boyfriend Dan Kato, they never married because of the third war.” Minato was watching his daughter closely.

“His eyes.” She couldn’t stop herself from speaking.

“Yeah.” Minato smiled at her.

There was a softness in his father’s voice Naruto didn’t understand. They had looked at that photo album a hundred times together and his father’s voice had never been so...gentle before, like it was now.

“You said you had older ones? Do you have any of Dan and his mother?” Sakura asked Minato.

Minato bit his lip, Sakura noticed it as one of her own quirks.

“Does he know?” She asked Minato, looking at Naruto.

“No.” Minato said, so it was time was it?

“I know why you didn’t tell him but I think...he should know.” She looked over at Naruto not waiting for Minato to answer or give his own opinion on it.

“I’m your sister Naruto.” Sakura told him. She had Sasori’s bluntness she realized.

Whatever Naruto had been expecting, it hadn’t been that.

“What?” He asked blankly.

Sakura laughed, that’s exactly what she had said when Sasori had told her she was the daughter of the Hokage.

“I’m your older sister.” She repeated and looked at Minato, daring him to deny it.

He didn’t. “Your mom and I had a daughter, before you were born, I told you about her.” Minato began but Naruto interrupted him.

“You said she was gone though, that someone stole her.” Naruto protested, this wasn’t funny, why were they doing this to him…

“She was. She was stolen from us and sold...to a child slaver who sold her to an orphanage known to sell children to anyone who would pay their asking prices. Kakashi found Sakura, in Suna...when he went there for the alliance reformation.” Minato told his son. “He asked a few questions and answered a few...he told me he had found her when he got back to Konoha.”

Minato watched his daughter. She didn’t look surprised but he wondered if she would look surprised even if she had actually been surprised. She was so much like Sasori, it sickened him.

Naruto looked from his father to his...sister. “That was like, seven years ago...seven years ago! How come no one told me, neither of you, you both knew?”

Minato had expected him to get upset but he was handling it better than he thought he would.

“It was for her safety, she comes from both Suna and Konoha blood Naruto. You know who your grandmother is Naruto, well her grandfather Dan was the illegitimate son of the Third Kazekage, which is why you can manipulate sand.” Minato looked at his daughter.

“It isn’t a big deal.” Sakura said as if she were bored, an imitation of her Master, of Sasori.

Minato frowned. “It is a big deal.” He didn’t know if she meant the sand manipulation or that she was his daughter.

“It’s not. There are more important things that I need to focus on than who I’m related to.” She rose from her seat to leave.

“Sit down.” Minato said sternly.

Sakura raised her eyebrow at him, ready to challenge him. She didn’t care if he was the Hokage or not. The only person who had ever commanded her to do anything had been...Sasori.

“Please.” Minato added, more gently.

“Are you really her, are you really my sister Sakura?” Naruto asked.

“Yeah.” Sakura sat back down in her seat.

“Your mother named you Sakura. She could see the cherry trees from her hospital room, it was Spring of course and they had just started to bloom. New life, a new season, you were so small Sakura, and your hair was so pink and beautiful, it just seemed so fitting to name you after the blossoms.” Minato moved closer to his daughter.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the blondes sitting on the couch beside her, photo album forgotten on her lap. She was angry and she didn’t know why. Why was he telling her that, what was he hoping for...

“What do you think is going to happen? Do you think we are going to hug and kiss and say how much we’ve missed one another or something?” She asked sarcastically, reminding herself of Sasori.

She almost flinched internally...was there nothing of herself in her?

“No!” Minato protested. “I just, I want to get to know you, as my daughter, as Naruto’s sister. It’s been so long and I didn’t even get to raise you to teach you anything, to be there for you.” Minato protested again.

“Why are you so mad?” Naruto didn’t understand. “You have a family now, you have people who love you, that you can depend on now.”

Sakura laughed a mirthless laugh. “People I can depend on.” ‘What a joke’, she thought to herself. ‘I have Gaara’.

“You don’t even know me.” She rose from her seat. ‘How can they, I don’t even know myself’, she hated this, she hated how she was feeling.

“Sakura.” Minato tried again.

“No. It’s too late. It isn’t your fault and it definitely isn’t yours Naruto but...it isn’t mine either and this isn’t what I wanted. I shouldn’t have come here.” Her body flickered, and then she was gone.

Sakura grabbed her bag from the bed in the visitor’s apartment and flickered to the front gate. He was there of course, she had expected him to be there. She wasn’t lucky enough to be able to escape the Yellow Flash, even Sasori had considered him an equal.

“Sakura wait.” Minato tried to pull on her sleeve but she jumped back and away falling into a crouch.

“Hokage Sama.” The guards drew their weapons.

“Tell them. Tell them to back off or I’ll kill them.” Sakura growled.

“No, you won’t. Daughter or not, you will not threaten anyone in my village, your village.” Minato stood before her, back straight, head held high.

“Daughter?” One of the guards gaped at her, they knew who she was, or at least who they thought she was, until the Hokage had called her his daughter.

Minato ignored the guards, his focus solely on Sakura.

“I want to talk to you. Please Sakura, come back to the house, have dinner with Naruto and I. Let me explain.” Minato held his hand out to her.

Sakura looked at his hand. It was too much. She took a step back...and then another.

“Sorry Father. It’s too late. Konoha is not my village and it never will be.” ...and she flickered away.

Minato stood at the gate, he could feel her moving faster and faster, farther and farther away from him...toward Suna.

“Hokage Sama?” The guards behind him asked.

“Do not speak of this...to anyone, for my sake, please, for her sake...for Konoha, if word gets out that I have a daughter...we’ll all be in danger, especially my daughter.” Minato turned to the guards who nodded.

Kotetsu and Izumo nodded.

“Thank you.” Minato turned back to look out into the forest. That was not how he had hoped it would go.

Sakura didn’t stop running until her feet touched sand, until she was almost back to Suna, until she reached for the seal to the door to the nearest safe house by Suna, Sasori’s safe house. She made the sign and bit her thumb pressing it down, the door slid open and she walked inside, closing it behind her.

Even though she had teleported most of the way, she was still out of breath as she leaned against the door of the cave. Pushing off of the door she moved to the cupboards along the wall and pulled out futon, pillow and blankets, laying them out on the floor by the fire pit.

She pulled firewood from her storage scroll muttering about how she was an idiot and should have at least waited until after dinner to tell Naruto she was his sister, then at least she could have eaten. The tinder caught fire and spread over the logs she had stacked in a small lopsided pile. She watched the glow rise in front of her and felt the warmth spread over her arms, legs and feet.

With a deep breath she pulled her bag to her and opened a cup of instant ramen. With a minor water jutsu she filled her metal canteen and placed it at the base of the fire to heat the water for her dinner. She looked at the dried noodles and the shriveled up dehydrated vegetables in the foam cup and sighed. Maybe she should just go home, to Suna and eat a real meal. No, she wasn’t ready for that yet either.

Maybe it was time for a new puppet, one of her own creation. She loved Kayda, but it was Sasori’s creation not hers and she wanted something that was just hers. The more she thought of it, the more appealing the idea was to her. She looked around the room. She didn’t want to make it here though, she wanted her own place, her own workroom. She didn’t want to bask in Sasori’s shadow any longer. 

There had been too many changes in her life this year, too many that she hadn’t had any control over. It was time she made some changes of her own. It was time for her to find out who she was and to be who she wanted to be.

Sakura moved deeper into the cave into the second room that Sasori used as his work room. He had left Suna and left her everything. His will had been simple. Everything that had been his, was now hers, as was the law. A missing nin was considered dead in their village. 

So, she started pulling tools and materials from the shelves, glass jars of herbs and measuring utensils, sealing them into the storage scroll at her waist.

She moved from shelf to shelf taking everything and sealing it away. This had been his main workroom being so close to Suna, it had everything she needed to make her puppet, she just needed to find the perfect shell with the perfect abilities.

Her hands moved over the last of the things she would take with her when her eyes fell to the end of the work table where her letter to him had been...it was gone and in its place was a different letter, on different paper. 

She bit her lip. It was just like him. Just when she had decided to move on, to be her own person he would take her letter and leave her one in its place.

“Damn you Sasori.” Her hand trembled as she picked the letter up.

Closing her eyes she opened the letter. It hadn’t been sealed, it had only been folded. She bit her lip to bleeding as she opened her eyes.

_I know you were there. I know you read my letter. I can explain._

Sakura flipped the paper over but there wasn’t anything else. “That’s it?” 

She couldn’t believe this. He writes paragraph after paragraph going on and on about how much he cares about the person, how he loves her, how sorry he is and how he wants more than anything for her to forgive him, and to her he writes...three short sentences and then doesn’t even explain anything to her!

“Fuck this!” Sakura ripped the letter to shreds and threw it to the floor of the cave.

She pulled a kunai from her pouch, one that wasn’t poisoned, and slashed her finger tip open. On the work table, where he was sure to see it she wrote in her blood…

**I’m worth more. I deserve more. I wish you well with her.**

‘I can explain’, but he hadn’t. There wasn’t anymore to his letter. Three sentences, that’s all she had been worth to him! She was humiliated, she was disgusted with him, but more disgusted with herself. How could she have been so foolish, so blind.

She stormed from the room, her storage scroll in her hand and stomped out the fire in the main room, threw her canteen in the corner of the cave and kicked her opened ramen cup to the side of the wall. One last look, one last memory, she turned on her heel and left the cave, sealing it for the last time behind her.

A strong wind blew into his office through his open window. Evening had come, the sun had set. Gaara got up from his desk to close the window when he felt her. There was a shift in the pressure of the room and he turned slowly, to where he knew she would be.

“Sakura.” He swallowed.

“Gaara.” She took a step toward him and stopped. “Forgive me?”

‘Yes!’, Shukaku yelled in his head. ‘Forgive her, whatever it is she wants forgiveness for, forgive her!’, Shukaku was dancing around in his head.

‘Fool, we don’t even know what she has done, she could have slept with Shisui Uchiha for all we know and has come to tell me she’s moving to Konoha, shut up’, he told the tanuki.

‘She wouldn’t do that’, Shukaku was adamant but Gaara had had enough of listening to him.

He had made some decisions while she had been gone and apparently so had she. He could sense a change in her, there was an energy in the air that hadn’t been there before she had left. 

There were some things that needed to be said between them. If she was back and asking for forgiveness he wanted to know what he was forgiving her for and he wanted to set a few things straight with her, their days of not communicating well were over, starting now.

“What do you want me to forgive you for? For leaving? For leading me to think I meant more to you than I did? For ripping my heart out and constantly pushing me away?” His tone was bitter he knew it, but it is how he felt and he wanted her to know it.

“Yes.” She looked him in the eye. “For all of that and for not realizing how much I meant to you and how much you loved me.” 

“I’m sorry Gaara.” She took another step toward him and stopped.

There was his desk between them. He wanted to walk to her, to pull her into his arms but he didn’t, he kept himself at a distance. He had to.

“Are you back, have you come back or are you leaving again? The Uchiha’s summons told him you would be in Konoha for a few more days.” Gaara kept his hands behind his back, his fingers gripping each other to keep himself from reaching out for her.

“I’ve come back, I’ve come home, to stay. If you’ll let me.” She bit her bottom lip, then stopped and straightened her back.

Gaara looked her over, she was trying, she was sincere...he wanted to believe her…

“...and Sasori, my Uncle do you still love him?” He hated himself, he hated that he had to ask, that he had to say his Uncle’s name.

“I do, but I have come to realize that it was an unhealthy love Gaara, it was a mistake and he isn’t worthy of my love.” Her voice was quiet, but she knew he had heard her.

She hadn’t lied. She had told him the truth. Gaara nodded once, his eyes softening. “...and me Sakura? Do you love me?” He held his breath.

“Gaara.” Her voice broke and the tears she promised herself on the run back to Suna that wouldn’t fall, fell from the corners of her eyes and caught in the corners of her mouth. Her lips quivered and she bit it hard.

“I love you and I’m so sorry I hurt you, please forgive me Gaara.” 

She was crying, for him. His Sakura, was crying, and begging him for his forgiveness. She loved him...she loved him.

“I want to believe you. I’ve waited so long to hear you say those words to me, to tell me you love me, like I love you, but Sakura, if you’re unsure, if you’re confused and if you leave me again, I swear, I don’t know what I’ll do and I’m not sure if I even have enough heart in me left to regret it.” He locked his feet to the floor with his chakra, he couldn’t move to her, not yet. 

He had to wait, to hear her answer, it was all or nothing now and he refused to do it again, refused to be broken by this woman again.

Sakura nodded, she understood. “I love you Gaara. I want to come home...to you, where I belong, with you.”

Gaara swallowed. Who was he fooling. She could break him, over and over and he would still keep coming back to her, he would let her break him unto eternity, kami how he loved her.

“I love you Sakura.” He held his arms out to her, he didn’t trust himself not to fall.

She ran to him, slid across the desk and knocked him back up against the wall, buried her face in his chest, gripping the fabric of his robes in her fists and hugged him tight as the tears continued to pour from her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Gaara, please forgive me.” She choked and coughed and sobbed.

“I’m sorry.” She cried.

“All I ever wanted was you Sakura. From the moment I first saw you, you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I knew you were the only one for me, I knew it could only be you. Welcome home Sakura.” He closed his eyes, he didn’t care if she left him a month from now, a year from now...she was here now and that’s all that mattered to him...but he hoped, he hoped to kami that it was real this time, that this time she would stay with him and love him the way he so desperately loved her...was in love with her. 

He had meant it then and he meant it now, there was no one else, there was only her.


	36. Chapter 36

“You may keep it. I’ll not begrudge you a token, a memory.” His finger traced the golden chain of the necklace his Uncle had given her to the small pendant in the shape of a scorpion. 

‘It is a mistake boy. You should erase all evidence of his presence in her life’, Shukaku growled at him.

‘No. That is not the way, besides it is impossible. His presence is in both of us, it can not be erased’, Gaara countered.

‘She is back, she is here, she is ours because of the actions I took because of my restraint. I have done this for us’, it was time the tanuki gave him more respect, listened to him more.

‘This is a partnership between you and I, what I do for myself I also do for you. We have our mate’, Gaara rubbed the tanuki between the ears in the confines of his mind.

‘Fine’, Shukaku conceded, the boy was right.

‘Thank you’, Gaara’s attention went back to the girl he held in his arms.

It had been his inauguration last week. The Konoha team had left yesterday morning along with the Hokage. Minato had been understanding, hesitant and watchful. Sakura had nodded to him, welcomed him to Suna and shook his hand before he had left. That was all she was ready to give him at this time.

“I will be patient as long as I know this is real. We have the rest of our lives. I’ll not rush you.” He ran his fingers down her bare shoulder to her arm, taking her hand in his and wrapping them both around her waist, drawing her up closer to himself.

Sakura nodded. They had spent the last week together, sleeping every night wrapped in each other's embrace. The dark circles around Gaara’s eyes were almost gone. It felt good to be back where she belonged. It felt good waking up next to him again.

“You know how I feel about you. No more running away. I want us to talk, to...do this right, to…” He couldn’t find the words to express what he meant, what he wanted.

“To communicate.” She turned in his arms and kissed his kanji.

“Yes, to communicate.” He kissed her forehead.

Sakura thought of the letter Sasori had left her…”I agree.”

“I’m sorry Gaara. I didn’t handle any of this well.” Was she any better than Sasori...yes, because she wanted to change, she acknowledged her flaws and was trying to fix them, trying to do better.

“Neither did I. You are not the only one to blame for what happened between us. What matters is we are both here now and that we understand each other better now. At least, I hope we do?” He rubbed his nose against hers and she giggled.

“I think so.” She smiled, this was nice, this was what she wanted.

“I have a lot to do today, we should get up. Are you meeting with the contractor today or was that tomorrow?” He asked her.

“Today, but I will be free for lunch if you would like to have lunch together?” She looked up at him.

Gaara was much busier than he had ever been before as Kazekage but he had managed to make time for her this past week, be it dinner, lunch or taking a little extra time with her in the morning like he was now. She had started bringing him his dinners in his office or his lunches if he was too busy to get out of the office.

Sometimes he would surprise her in her lab in the same fashion. They were growing up and growing into their lot in life, but it was an unspoken agreement, they would always try to make sure they had time for one another.

“I think that can be arranged, come by when you’re hungry. I have a meeting scheduled at 2pm but will be doing paperwork until then.” He kissed her briefly before throwing his legs over the side of their raised bed.

“I have a meeting after the contractor but it is also in the afternoon.” She said, pleased that their schedules were compatible.

“Good luck with the contractor, I look forward to hearing about your plans for Sasori’s old house at lunch.” He shut the door to the bathroom as she got out of bed and stretched.

Sakura had decided to put Sasori’s house to good use. She didn’t want to live there anymore. Gaara didn’t want her to live there anymore. So she had decided it would be the perfect studio for her creations. It would be close to the hospital if she was needed, but separate, private...sound proof.

Gaara came out of the bathroom, towel around his neck, bare chested with his pants slipping down around his hips and Sakura couldn’t help but stop brushing her hair to appreciate him.

He smirked, “Something wrong?”

Sakura shook her head and turned away from him, her cheeks pink. She had noticed before how attractive Gaara was of course but it was different now. Growing up alongside him, like brother and sister fully aware that they weren’t brother and sister had been confusing to her and she was sure it had been confusing to him as well. She thought perhaps that had a lot to do with how horrible both of them had handled their emotions and recent events.

They had talked about it after she had returned and they both agreed that it had taken some time to realize their feelings had changed somewhere along the way. She didn’t see him as her brother, never had, not really but he was her best friend and she hadn’t given him much thought past that, until a few months ago. 

Now, he was...attractive and her stomach fluttered when he looked at her. She would blush and look away when he caught her looking at him, she was embarrassed. It was a new feeling, confusing in it’s own way but also...exciting and dangerous in a way that was more tempting than killing had ever been for her.

Part of her envied Gaara. He seemed to know what he wanted and how he felt and had none of the confusion over his feelings for her that she had, he was more confident in that area of their relationship. She found herself letting him lead, for the first time in their lives and she rather enjoyed it. It was nice having someone she could trust, completely. He was the only one now.

His skin was still hot from his shower and when he drew her back up against his chest and kissed her neck she could feel the heat rise even further up her neck and darken her cheeks, she hoped he couldn’t see it.

“You’re going to be late Kazekage.” She set her brush down on the nightstand.

“Worth it.” His lips moved against the sensitive spot on her neck just below her ear by her hairline.

She felt herself leaning back into him as his hands dropped to her waist.

“Gaara, you’re going to make me late too.” She turned her head to look back at him and he caught her earlobe with his teeth.

“So be late.” He backed up, back toward the bed bringing her with him by her hips, he sat down on their bed and pulled her up onto his lap sideways.

“Gaara.” 

“Mmm?” 

He drew her back with him, his arms around her middle and flipped her bringing his body over hers. “You’re so soft.” His hair tickled her chin as he kissed his way down her neck and across her shoulders pulling the strap of her sleeping top down.

“Gaara I have to get ready, I need to get to the house, the contractor said he wanted a rough layout of my idea and I haven’t drawn it up yet.” She tried to push him off of her gently.

“I’m helping you get ready. You can’t meet him in your pajamas. I’m helping you, get undressed.” He pulled down the strap to her top on her other shoulder, his mouth moving smoothly over her bare skin.

“Someone’s coming Gaara.”

He pushed down the light fabric of her tank top ignoring her and the chakra signature heading steadily toward their rooms.

“I’m so glad you don’t wear a bra to bed.” He took one of her nipples into his mouth and flicked his tongue over the top making her arch her back.

KNOCK KNOCK

“Gaara? Are you up? You’d better be up!” Temari’s voice came through the door, past their sitting room into the bedroom.

Gaara ignored his sister, one of his hands dropping to the draw strings of her pants pulling at the ties.

“Gaara! A messenger from Iwa arrived this morning...a few of the council members have already arrived at your office...” Temari called out again.

Sakura moved underneath him, against him, trying to block Temari’s voice from her head.

“GAARA! DAMN IT PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR YOU!” Temari bellowed.

“KAZEKAGE!” She yelled.

“I am not having our first time serenaded by the sound of your screaming sister.” Sakura took his hand from her pants and pulled it up to her mouth kissing it. “Besides, now we are both, really late.”

“Our first time...you would let me…” He had promised himself he would wait, would wait for her to tell him when she was ready, was she ready…

“Well, isn’t that what you were going to do ? I mean you were uh...right?” She sat up a little, her weight resting on her elbows as she looked at him.

“GAARA! DAMN IT!” Temari continued to yell outside their doors.

They ignored her.

“I was waiting for you to tell me to stop honestly.” He sat back on his legs, straddling her.

“Maybe we could talk about this later?” Sakura turned her head to the door, Temari was banging on it now.

Gaara laughed. “Later.” He leaned forward and kissed her quickly before moving off the bed toward their dresser, pulling his jounin shirt out and throwing it over his head. 

He grabbed his Kazekage robes from the hanger on the door. “See you for lunch.” Gaara left their bedroom for their sitting room and opened the door to see his sister’s raised hand, about to bang on their door again.

“What the fuck are you two doing damn it Gaara there are people waiting for you in your office Iwa is here and…” Temari’s voice trailed off as her and Gaara walked out of their rooms and down the hall.

‘Iwa?’, Sakura pulled her top off over her head as her thoughts went to Iwa. ‘What the hell is Iwa doing here?’, she wondered.

Komei was waiting for her in her lab when she opened the door. Since Sakura had returned from her little impromptu trip to Konoha Komei had been her ever present reliable shadow. More than an assistant but not quite a friend Sakura welcomed her presence.

“The contractor called, he is running late. Here are the reports from last week at the hospital. Your students are in the OR waiting for you. They didn’t want to start before you checked their work.” Komei followed her around her lab as she spoke.

“Why are they waiting for me, they know what they’re doing by now. If they checked everything off the list I gave them, tell them to start. I will see them after. The worst thing that can happen is the patient will be in a little more pain than normal, he won’t die.” Sakura shooed Komei out of the room and turned back to her poisons table.

She still hadn’t found an antidote to her last poison and it was starting to bother her. All of the rats she had injected with each new antidote she had created had still died. It was incredibly frustrating to her. This was both a testament to her skill and an affront to her intelligence at the same time.

“The Tsuchikage would like to express his congratulations once again Kazekage Sama.” The Iwa nin’s voice was slick and oily, fake and smooth with the promises of deceit and manipulation, it dripped offense.

“He expresses his hope that this will be the start of a fruitful relationship for both Iwa and Suna.” The Iwa nin bowed his head to Gaara slowly, then raising his head to reveal a toothy oily smile, much like his words.

“New leadership offers new opportunities.” The Iwa nin said condescendingly.

Gaara remained silent but Temari filled the void with a bark of laughter.

All heads turned to the blonde.

“I do not recall seeing the Tsuchikage among the other Kage who came to congratulate my brother in person last week. The Raikage was here, even though the tension between Lightning and Wind are well known and unresolved. The Tsuchikage though, I did not see.” Her words rang solidly throughout the four containing walls.

“A regrettable instance to be sure young Princess.” The Iwa nin began his lie but was interrupted by Kankuro.

“We may be young but do not take our youth for lack of experience.” Kankuro growled.

“Kankuro. Be quiet.” Gaara’s voice was soft, polite and to those who did not know him, saw no danger there, but Temari and Kankuro did know their brother. 

Kankuro nodded his obedience to his Kazekage and sat back in his chair.

“Please excuse my brother. Continue.” Gaara prompted the Iwa representative to continue his lie.

“Thank you Kazekage Sama. As I was saying, the Tsuchikage regrets his absence on your special day, but matters of the state required him to remain at home. You understand Kazekage Sama.” The Iwa nin bowed his head with feigned respect.

The room waited for Gaara to speak, to respond. Two of the three council members fidgeted in their seats casting nervous glances to and fro.

Gaara’s eyes held those of the nameless Iwa nin. He had offered his name but Gaara hadn’t cared enough to remember it. His red head tilted to the side a bit as if considering the Iwa nin’s words of ‘Diplomacy’. Kankuro shifted in his seat and Temari looked out the window, not in disinterest or defiance, but in fear of what she thought was to come.

“Special day.” Gaara’s voice was calm, steady and misleading.

“A child’s birthday is a special day.” Gaara began.

“When a young shinobi masters their first jutsu, it is a special day.” Gaara continued and the oily smile on the Iwa nin’s face began to fall.

“The naming of a new Kage. The crowning a of King...is History.” Gaara’s eyes remained calm, his voice remained steady but his chakra cracked and snapped around the room.

“Kazekage Sama. I meant no offense...” The Iwa representative began.

“Do not interrupt me.” Gaara’s voice was calm but his eyes were cold.

“You come here, to Suna unannounced, in the presence of my brother, in the face of my council and insult my sister, a Princess of Suna, you insult my intelligence with your excuses and you impune my position.” Gaara stood and the rest of the room stood with him.

“Leave. Tell the Tsuchikage to choose his messenger more wisely next time. Next time, I may not be as generous with my forgiveness.” 

The Iwa nin bowed with a small jerking of his body, turned on his heel pushing his chair back and left the room.

“Kankuro, make sure the fool makes it to the border without losing his way.” Gaara waved a hand at his brother.

“With pleasure.” Kankuro left the room.

One of the most elderly of the Suna council rose and bowed before Gaara. “Kazekage Sama. With the hope I do not also impune your dignity, well done Gaara Sama. I believe that will send a clear message to Iwa, who is leading The Village Hidden in The Sand now.”

Gaara lips turned up in the merest hint of a smile as he inclined his head to the elder and council member. “Thank you Daishu Sama.”

“Kazekage Sama.” Another, younger member spoke from their seat at the table.

“When will you announce your engagement to the village, a public announcement is required.”

Teal eyes flickered around the room to avoid anymore outbursts of similar nature. “I am aware of the laws. We will announce our engagement when we are ready. There are more important things to consider at this time.” Gaara turned his back on the council to look out the open window of his office.

“Kazekage Sama.” The same man began but Daishu laid a hand over his arm and shook his head.

“Let the Kazekage do things in his own time, we have nothing to worry about, they are both young, let them come into their own, on their own.” The old man laughed like old men do when they say things that remind them of their own days gone by.

“Come. I find myself wanting a few of those sweet rolls from the stand by the library, join me.” The two men left the room followed closely by the last council member leaving Gaara and Temari alone.

“The Tsuchikage will not like your message.” Temari said what they had all been thinking.

“I did not like his.” Gaara turned to face his sister.

“There will be repercussions for this Gaara.” Temari warned.

“I expect there will be.” He turned back to his window and looked down to the street, a flash of pink drew his eye.

Sakura’s pink hair blew around her with the light breeze of the Suna summer, her arms loaded with books, charts and files as she walked back to the manse from her lab at the hospital.

“I’ll be back later, Temari. I believe it is time for lunch.” He smiled as his sand rose up around him and he disappeared.

“It’s only 10:30 am!” She called out after her brother, a soft smile on her lips.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't sleep again.......................... here's a chapter.

Sasori looked at the time piece on the wall of his cave. “Now’, he thought. ‘Right about now she will start to understand, she will see, there isn’t anywhere she can go that I can’t and won’t follow her’, he smiled to himself as he pulled the marked cylinders from their glass case and set them on the table before him.

It had been too easy to enter Suna undetected, the hospital, to read the charts for the next day’s surgery, too easy to break the seal on her lab door. Too easy to find her hiding places for things she deemed important when he knew her as well as he did. Too easy. He smiled.

“Sakura Sama!” Komei ran down the narrow street calling out to Sakura before she could fully disappear into the Kazekage’s manse at the end of the street.

“Huh?” Sakura turned and two folders fell from the top of her stack of books, binders and folders. “Damn it.” Sakura hissed.

Komei skidded to a stop before her, bent and snatched the papers from the ground, setting them on top of Sakura’s stack and helpfully taking half of the stack into her own arms to help the woman.

“Ah. thank you Komei. What did you need me for?” Sakura asked, giving the girl beside her, her full attention.

“The surgery Sakura Sama, the shinobi with the appendicitis, he died.” Komei said as she opened the door to the manse for Sakura.

“What!” Sakura almost dropped the rest of her papers but Gaara appeared beside her and caught them for her.

“Kazekage Sama!” Komei fell to the ground dropping all the binders and papers she had been holding for Sakura.

Gaara’s sand rose in the air collecting all of the papers before they could fly away into the village and beyond.

“Komei, did you just say that the appendicitis died?” Sakura didn’t think she had heard the girl correctly, it was a simple enough procedure that should have been an easy task for her students.

“Yes Sakura Sama, just a moment ago, your students, they said that I needed to find you right away that something was wrong right from the beginning.” Komei set the things she had been carrying down on a stand just inside the door of the manse.

“Give those to me Sakura. I’ll put them in our sitting room, go to the hospital. I’ll see you later.” Gaara took the stack of paperwork from Sakura’s arms just before she flickered away.

“Go, assist her with whatever she needs.” Gaara told Komei who bowed low and ran out the front door.

Gaara sighed as he carried Sakura’s things to their rooms...all hopes of a ‘Lunch date’ squashed beneath each step he took toward their rooms alone.

Sakura burst through the front doors of the hospital and raced up the stairs to the operating room where she could sense the chakra of her students.

All three of them were standing around the bed arguing, none of them had even noticed her come in the room behind them. She was more than disappointed in them. She had trained them better than this.

“You would all be dead right now if I were an enemy, not one of you sensed me. I will be lenient with your punishment depending on your next words.” She gave each one a narrowed eye.

“What happened…” She asked them, pointing to the first one on the left.

“He’s...he was dead but now he’s...alive.” The boy stammered.

Sakura pushed him aside and stepped up to the bed where a man lay...alive but just barely. Frowning Sakura pushed chakra to her hands and scanned him from head to abdomen.

“He was poisoned.” Sakura said bewildered.

“His chart.” She held out her hand and the man's chart was placed in it immediately.

“He was out on patrol and complained of a pain in his side, okay yes.” She ran her finger down the chart looking at the original diagnosis.

“It says here that he complained of a strange taste in his mouth yesterday afternoon?” She looked at her students annoyed.

“How come none of you bothered to tell me this?” She demanded.

“It didn’t seem important, Sakura Sama.” The girl answered. For her team.

“He was poisoned. Does it seem important now?” Sakura looked down at the man in the bed.

“How is he alive, what did you give him?” She turned to her students who paled.

“We panicked Sakura Sama so we um…” 

“What did you do?” She growled with impatience.

“We gave him one of your antidotes, in case it was poison.” The second boy answered her, clearly frightened of her reaction.

“From your lab.” The girl offered and flinched when Sakura turned on her heel and stomped to her lab leaving them behind.

Nimble fingers touched down over the corked caps of her antidote cabinet. The door to her lab had been unlocked. She always locked it. Ignoring that enigma for the more immediate issue she looked through her antidotes until she came to the bottom shelf...the shelf where she kept her untested antidotes...the ones she had made last night for her rats that she had yet to try. There was an empty spot, where there had been an empty vial. The vial was gone...why, it had been empty.

She walked back to the operating room. “Give me the vial you took.”

The girl handed her the almost empty vial.

“How did you get into my lab?” She asked as she uncorked the vial and drew out a bit of the antidote with her chakra.

“Your door was open Sakura Sama, we thought you were inside but you weren’t and when we saw your antidote cabinet open we…”

“What?”

“Your cabinet was open so we…”

Sakura raised her hand for silence. She frowned as she shifted the little drops of the antidote in her hand with her chakra. 

“This isn’t mine.” She whispered, her heart raced.

“The man, is he stable?” Sakura asked them, she was already checking him herself though, green hands running over his body.

“Yes Sakura Sama...did you say that the antidote we gave the patient, wasn’t yours?” The second boy asked her, eyes wide.

Sakura didn’t answer him, instead she pushed her chakra into the man’s abdomen, into his intestines and withdrew two very small drops...of poison. “Get me a vial, something sterile to put this in.” She barked out.

“Here.” A glass was fit into her hand and she lowered the two purple drops into the vial and corked it.

A familiar chakra signature clung to the poison...purposefully. A clear message. ‘Sasori’, her blood pulsed hot and cold through her veins. He had been in her lab, he had been in her hospital and he had poisoned this man...with her own poison...why...why do this…

“See to this man’s recovery, come get me no matter where I am or what time it is if anything changes in his vitals. Take shifts, round the clock for the next twenty four hours, one of you must remain by his side at all times.” She ordered her team and walked out of the operating room, down the hall and back into her lab shutting and sealing the door behind her.

She set the poison in an empty rack and the drops of the antidote next to it. Sakura bit her bottom lip and looked around her lab for any tell tale signs of Sasori. There was nothing. Closing her eyes she sent her chakra out around her in a cloud and pushed it into the floor, the shelves, the work tables and the brick of the walls, searching.

Her eyes snapped open...there. Her hand shook as she reached out for the invisible seal on the wall. Carefully she made the hand signs to unlock the hidden compartment she had made in the brick of the wall that even Gaara didn’t know about. Inside was a small plain piece of paper. With a hard measured swallow she pulled the paper from the wall and turned it over.

Sasori’s fine lines looked up at her.

_There is no poison you can make that I can not cure. I am still your Master._

_There is no her, there is only you._

_I told you, I will come for you on your eighteenth birthday._

_Wait for me._

There was no signature, there was no need.

“Sasori.” Sakura leaned up against the wall, note clenched in her fingers that wouldn’t seem to stop shaking.

“Asshole.” She pushed off from the wall. 

“Do you just expect me to wait here for you?” She threw the paper to the floor and stomped on it.

She glared at the little piece of paper now flattened and dirty on the floor of her lab, her lab that he had broken into. She bent and picked the paper back up and turned it to it’s blank side.

Pulling a pen from her desk on the other side of the room she scribbled a reply and shoved it back in it’s hidden compartment that he had found damn him.

With more force than she intended she opened her poisons cabinet and pulled out her now half empty vial of poison that she hadn’t been able to find an antidote for...but he had and had shoved it in her face. 

‘He knew I wasn’t going to return, he knew I wouldn’t go back to any of his safehouses and so he...had found another way to communicate with me. Leaving a clear message, to let me know I couldn’t hide from him, that I can’t leave him behind or cut him out of my life.” She sat down hard in her chair at her desk.

Her thoughts went back to the note.

_‘There is no her, there is only you’_

She had written her reply. 

_I don’t know what that means, you never explain anything. I don’t know what any of that means!_

He would be back for her, she knew it now. She couldn’t run away from him. She couldn’t cut him out of her life, he was her Master and she was his student, but she could damn well fucking try.

“Fuck you Sasori.” She snarled and ran her hands through her hair pulling it from its elastic and gnashing her teeth together. “Fuck you!” She screamed.

Little beads of sweat dripped down the sides of his temples, gathering slowly, slipping down the sides of his face to fall annoyingly onto the front of his shirt as his fingers moved slowly connecting each fiber, each membrane of his magnum opus.

He had left her his warning and had come straight to his workshop near the outskirts of Konoha Forest to complete his final cores. Sasori had seen their Suna safe house, had seen his shelves and rooms pillaged and cleared. What the hell did the girl think she was doing defying him like that. He had done everything for her, sacrificed his freedom, his title...his sanity for her…

Of course he had seen her message written in blood...she had misunderstood his letter he knew now. She hadn’t known it was for her. Part of him had been relieved, part of him had been annoyed. She had reacted rashly, he had seen the opened ramen cup, had seen the pieces of the letter he had left her...her bloody message...the fool.

A twitch in his lips betrayed his emotions. He was pleased. If his assumed abandonment of her had roused such an alarming reaction from her...it meant she cared about him deeply, it meant...she loved him. He only hoped it was the same way he loved her.

Bloody trails covered the surface of the table, fragmented chakra channels were cast to the floor in his haste to connect the compatible ones to their mates inside the cores before they could dry and shrivel up. Life is what he was creating. Life is what he was offering her.

Sasori pulled the storage scroll from his pack and unsealed it quickly rolling it so the blood he had collected from her flowed evenly into the core he had made for her. The core pulsed and glowed with her chakra, with his and he smiled.

“Foolish girl. You can’t leave me, not after everything I’ve done for you. That was only the beginning.” He set the core down and picked up it’s partner to begin the same process over again.

Her bag had been dropped carelessly by the front door to their sitting room, her lab coat thrown hastily over the back of the couch. There were files and papers falling off the coffee table and spread out across the floor of the room. He sighed, this wasn’t a good sign.

She was sprawled out over the bed when he entered their bedroom, face down, eyes closed. Gaara moved the papers on the bed that she had stacked in a pile in a small fruitless attempt at order.

“Sakura?” He sat down beside her.

“Hmp.” The noise was light but clear, she wasn’t asleep.

“Have you had dinner yet?” He rubbed the small of her back, leaning into her.

“Sasori broke into my lab, poisoned one of my patients my student team was scheduled to do surgery on, created an antidote to my poison, the one I couldn’t make one for and left me a note in my hidden sealed compartment in my lab wall.” She said without warning.

“What did his note say?” Gaara asked, his hand stopped moving on her back.

“He was coming for me on my eighteenth birthday and for me to wait for him, that he was my Master.” She didn’t tell him about the other part...this was enough to send him over the edge, no need to add to it in her opinion.

“We will get married immediately.” He said quietly.

“How will us getting married help Gaara?” She rolled her eyes at him. Did he not hear her?

“Why do you think he wants to come back for you on your eighteenth birthday Sakura?” Gaara asked her.

She sat up and crossed her legs looking at him. “How should I know. Why did he break into my lab and poison one of my patients? No one knows why he does what he does. I used to think I knew but...I don’t.” 

Gaara looked at her amazed. She honestly didn’t know, didn’t see it, didn’t understand. Maybe it was because she was female and simply didn’t think like that, or maybe she was too modest...for whatever reason, he didn’t want to be the one to enlighten her but couldn’t see any way around it.

‘Don’t boy’, Shukaku hissed.

‘If you tell her, she will leave, she will leave us and find her Puppet Master’, Shukaku warned him.

‘Have you forgotten her confusion, her pain...why do you think she was so confused boy, why do you think his abandonment hurt her so badly?’, Shukaku asked him.

‘She was upset, she was hurt, he left us both’, Gaara told the tanuki.

‘Did you fall apart when he left, did you leave the village to find yourself after he left Gaara?’ Shukaku had never used his name before, had never spoken to him...like an equal, like a man.

“No’, Gaara said hesitantly, but he had when Sakura had hurt him, had left him, had broken his heart…

‘No’, the pain was too great, it was more than love, she didn’t just love his Uncle, she was in love with him. His whole body jerked with the realization as it hit him full force. She was only with him because...because she thought her first choice didn’t want her…

‘You understand don’t you?’ Shukaku asked him not without sympathy.

‘She will leave us again. She will leave us when he comes for her and we will never see her again’, Shukaku said sadly, his voice laced with emotion.

‘You don’t know that for sure but’, Gaara paused and Shukaku waited. ‘She doesn’t need to know, the risk is too great, she is happy with us, will be happy with us’, Gaara thought back to that morning, how happy they were, how she had said he could...that she wanted…

Shukaku nodded in his head. ‘It is for the best. We will protect her from him, she is better off with us Gaara. He wouldn’t be able to love her like we can, cherish her like we do. It is for the best’, Shukaku nodded to Gaara.

‘Yes’, Gaara agreed with the one tail.

Gaara took her hands in his. “I don’t know either. We don’t have to get married right away, it was silly of me. The council asked me this morning when we would announce our engagement, it was just on my mind.” He lied to her.

“What did you tell them?” She asked.

“I told them we were waiting for the right moment. I was waiting for you to tell me when, whenever you’re ready, Sakura.” He brought her hands to his lips and kissed them.

She smiled at him, “Thank you Gaara.”

“How did he do it though, how did we not notice him in the village?” She asked him.

“We are the best sensor nin in Suna Sakura. We have never been able to sense my Uncle, when he didn’t want us to.” It was the truth and they both knew it.

“So then…” She didn’t like that. Feeling like he could show up at any moment, at any time but she realized, he could have before and she hadn’t even thought of it until now, until he had WANTED her to know he could do it, had done it.

“He said he would be back when you were eighteen, presumably he won’t be back until then. He did it this time I think...to show you he could. You did take everything out of his closest hideout right?” He tried to smile at her, tried to reassure her it was a one time occurance, even if he himself was still unsure of his Uncle’s complete intentions toward her. He didn’t want her to worry.

“Yes, I think I pissed him off doing that.” She nodded, it made sense.

Gaara nodded back at her. “You took something from him, he took something away from you. At least you have an antidote to your poison now. Analyze it like you do, learn from it.”

Sakura saw the wisdom in his words. “I guess Sasori was right then. He is still my Master and I am still his student. I had hoped I had risen above that, it would make it so much easier to let him go.”

“Do you still want to let him go, Sakura?” He could stop himself from asking. Maybe Shukaku was right, maybe he was weak...but only when it came to her.

“I want to be happy Gaara.” She didn’t really answer his question but he let it go.

“I want you to be happy too, Sakura. I want to make you happy.” He kissed her forehead and pulled her into a hug.

“You do Gaara.” She sighed against his chest.

“I just want to be free of him, like he is so obviously free of me, of us, of Suna. It’s almost unfair the way he comes back like a whirlwind and stirs everything up only to leave again, leaving a mess behind him , leaving us to pick up the pieces.” She took a deep breath, held it for a moment and let it back out noisily through her nose.

“He is selfish Sakura. That’s what people who only love themselves do.” Gaara kissed the top of her head.

“Yeah, but it still sucks.” She giggled and looked up at him.

“Yeah, it does.” He didn’t laugh, he couldn’t, but he held her to him, his chin resting on the top of her head. “I love you Sakura. I hope you know that.”

She knew. She loved him too. He was Kazekage, there was no one to tell them no. She wasn’t sure why they were waiting, or what she was waiting for. It didn’t seem important right now, in his arms, in their room, together like this and this morning...she bit her bottom lip.

“Gaara, I love you. We don’t have to wait. We can announce our engagement.” She pulled back a little so she could look at him.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to rush you. I meant it, we can wait.” He wanted to make sure, she was sure.

“If this is because of Sasori…” He began.

“It isn’t. I mean it is in a way but not because of him, but because his actions remind me how selfish he is. You’re right Gaara, he is selfish. It doesn’t matter his reasons or the excuses he gives. It doesn’t excuse the way he...I mean he couldn’t even give me an explanation! He talks in riddles, in half thoughts and…” She was getting upset again.

“I love you, you’re the person I want to be with, you’re the one who loves me, who has always been there for me, from the start, the one who understands me. Everything you do, you do for me. I’m sorry it took me so long to see that Gaara.”

“It doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s worth it. You’re here with me now, that’s all that matters.” He looked back at her and smiled.

“I want to do this right Gaara. I want this to be normal. We’ve had so little of that in our lives and...when I was in Konoha I saw...what my life would have been like if I hadn’t been taken from my parents, if I had grown up with them and not been taken later by Sasori.” She took a calming breath and squeezed his hands in hers.

“I don’t think we can ever be normal like that but I want to try to be normal in our own way, for our...children.” She blushed.

Gaara swallowed and nodded. He wanted children, if it was with her, he wanted normal, with her.

“Can we, wait? This morning was really nice.” She blushed a deeper pink that made him want to do anything but wait.

“I like it when you touch me Gaara.” She looked down at their joined hands then back up at him through her lashes. “I want it to mean something though, I don’t want it to be because it just feels good.”

“Not just lust.” He knew what she meant.

“It is never just lust for me with you Sakura, you’re so much more to me than that but we can wait. If that is what you want.” He would promise her anything, anything she asked as long as he got to have her, as long as she was his and only his, he would give her anything, everything she ever wanted.

“Thank you Gaara. It means a lot to me. I know we can’t be like Minato and Naruto, but we can find our own way that works for us right?” She wanted it so badly.

She wanted the photo album with the pictures of the birthdays, of the holidays together, the presents, trips to the park. Like Shisui had with Itachi, the laughter, the bonds, the love. She could see herself having that with Gaara. They had had it once, for a very short time when they were kids. The tickling, the laughter, the bond, but as they had gotten older, things had changed. They had laughed less, talked less and for a while it had felt like they were slowly growing apart and losing one another, but she could have that with him.

It was something she knew she would never have with Sasori, had never had with him. She had had it with Gaara once and she would have it again, slowly, they had been rebuilding that bond, that closeness. She refused to let Sasori tear them apart, not now, not when they were so close to both of their happiness.


	38. Chapter 38

“She’s engaged? To the Kazekage…” Minato put down the latest report Itachi’s crow had just delivered with a frown.

He had just started to get to know her. She had run off and then their next interaction had been so...official. A handshake. She had given him a handshake and a nod of the head in dismissal when he had left Suna after Gaara’s inauguration. It was so...disappointing to him. 

...and now she was going to be married...he would never see her again or any children they had...he wouldn’t be a direct part of their lives and neither would Naruto.

Minato picked the report up again and read it to himself once more. He needed to do something, he just wasn’t sure what that was. Naruto had been rather quiet the past week, had refused to go to Suna with him when he had asked him to go...their relationship had changed. Maybe Naruto just needed a little time to think about things.

Sakura’s marriage could only strengthen the bonds between the two villages. Minato tried to look at this in a positive light. The old saying played through his head. ‘Instead of losing a daughter, you’re gaining a son’, but Sakura didn’t feel like his daughter, and he wasn’t sure about the son. They said he was a monster. ‘No more than your daughter’, that annoying voice in the back of his head whispered. ‘No more than Naruto’, but Naruto didn’t lose control of Kurama, not like Gaara had when he was younger.

Minato looked out of the window in his office, out over Konoha. ‘What would Kushina have done?’, he wondered.

Itachi watched her struggle but remained silent. She was closer than she had ever come to breaking the genjutsu. Just a little more...he could feel it. 

Sakura had her eyes screwed shut, her teeth ground against each other and she could feel the dull pain in the back of her neck growing sharper and sharper with each breath she took.

“Release!” She gasped.

“Close Sakura.” His voice came from far off, fading away.

‘Control it’...she reminded herself. ‘Control, you must maintain control, you’re stronger than this, you have to be stronger than this!’

“KAI!” The immense pressure fell away and was immediately replaced with a light relief.

Sakura collapsed to the ground, sweat dripping from her nose, her weight on her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

“Well done Sakura.” Itachi bent over at the waist and smiled at her. “Congratulations, you’re practically an Uchiha.” He teased her lightly.

“Hate.” She sat back on her heels sucking in air, drawing it deep into her lungs. “Hate you.”

She bent over clutching at the pain that was now piercing her side. “So much.”

“Did you know?” Itachi ignored her hate. “That even Shisui couldn’t do that very easily. Took him a year Sakura. You did it in seven months.” He patted her on the head.

“Again.” She stood up.

“Rest.” Itachi said.

“No, again and again and again until I can do it effortlessly.” She insisted.

“Sakura.” Itachi began.

“Please Ita.” She stood with her hands behind her back, her eyes sharp.

“Why?” He could guess why. For the last day or two she had been more determined, more focused...relentless.

“I have to get stronger.” She said evenly.

“One more time, we can resume your training tomorrow and try again, but only one more time today. I don’t want you to push yourself too hard. I want to move on to casting the genjutsu at higher levels as well, not just breaking them.” He explained.

Sakura nodded.

Itachi raised his right hand into the air gracefully. Sakura watched and felt the weight over her shoulders once more. It was becoming familiar, almost comforting in it’s presence...dominating and she realized...it was only his chakra, it was Itachi’s specifically, it was his...emotion.

“Kai.” She stumbled.

‘Focus’, she bit her bottom lip, “Release!”

The weight lifted, the air was easier to draw into her lungs. She had done it much faster that time.

“What changed?” He asked her.

“I realized something Itachi. Your genjutsu, you cast it with...your emotions, your feelings.” She said confused.

“Why?” She didn’t understand.

“Empathy, you may recall, I told you is your greatest strength. Emotion is changing, it is fluid, it is power.” He watched her...was she finally understanding?

“Emotion is power? It clouds your judgement, it makes you falter, emotion is a weakness…” Her voice was unsure, he could hear the apprehension in it.

“Is that what Sasori told you?” He asked.

“Think of it as another weapon, use it to your advantage, use it against your enemy...why limit yourself?” He said simply.

Sasori had said that to her many times but with a completely different basis. It perplexed her. 

Itachi was a strong shinobi, few compared to him, in fact she doubted whether either her or Gaara could go up against him and succeed without losing a limb, their sanity or half the village. Yet he stood before her telling her emotion was...useful, a tool, a benefit, a strength?

“Akasuna no Sasori is a formidable enemy, but like every jutsu, every shinobi has a weakness. I think his is that he can not see past his own greatness, he casts aside portions of himself that could make him even greater, but his pride calls those parts weaknesses. He is a product of his generation, a generation built on blood and the bodies of those weaker than themselves.”

Sakura knew he wasn’t wrong but she wasn’t sure if she completely agreed with his assessment.

Itachi shrugged, relaxing onto the heels of his feet, “It’s easy to comment, to pass judgement on others, harder to see our own flaws, our own weaknesses.”

He waved to her and walked back to the academy, he had a class to teach. “See you tomorrow morning Sakura.”

“Thank you Itachi.” She called out after him, turning to the manse to shower and start her own shift at the hospital.

The man that had been poisoned made a full recovery and had been released after Sakura herself had checked his vitals again.

Sasori hadn’t been back, hadn’t received her response. She didn’t care, she left the note in the wall in case he ever came back, if he ever cared enough to come back again. 

Several months passed, the students from Keys and Bears were expected shortly. She had her newly graduated students arrange rooms for them in the new resident building of the hospital. The children’s ward had been recently finished. Her former students were now on the new payroll of the new ward. Things were looking up in Suna.

Gaara had made tremendous progress with the council, adding two more members, two more younger members along with his brother and sister, disbanding his private council. The citizens of Suna rallied behind their young Kazekage, unified in their admiration and appreciation of his efforts.

Sasori’s house remodeling was complete, her workshop set up to her liking. The walls had been sound proofed, the plumbing adjusted. There had been seals in the walls of his old bedroom and hers. It had taken her ten hours of tedious concentration to dismantle them and nearly all of her chakra, she had slept almost the entire next day through. 

He had sealed everything with different levels of chakra, with different seals. If she hadn’t known him so well, if she hadn’t known it was simply in his nature to do such things, she might have thought him paranoid. As it was...she took his seals down and replaced them with her own.

There had been several advantages other than the obvious to being the apprentice of a man like Sasori. 

She was a Puppet Master, a Poisons Master and a master of Fuinjutsu, it made her a formidable opponent

Staying true to her original plan, she took a chakra pill every three days and stored as much as her chakra into creating her Yin seal as she was able. 

She woke up early to Gaara poking her in the forehead shortly after they had celebrated their official engagement announcement to Suna. Temari had thrown them a party with all of the council members and wealthier Suna residents.

“I can see the outline of your Yin seal. I think it is coming in there.” Gaara poked her forehead again and she murmured something murderous and threatening to him under her breath and turned away from him in their bed.

“How long will it take you to have a fully formed diamond?” He asked, ignoring her death threats, he was used to them.

“I don’t know, it’s different for everyone.” She pulled the pillow up and over her head blocking him out.

Gaara weaseled his head under the pillow next to hers, “I read it takes about four years, it’s barely been one since you started, those chakra pills you have been taking seem to be accelerating the process, just like you thought.”

“Gaara.” She growled pushing his head back out from underneath her pillow and flopping back over to avoid another poke to the head.

“I want to sleep more. I have two more hours until I have to get up.” She glared at him, one eye opened and narrowed.

“What do you want for your birthday?” He ignored her, he was in too good a mood to have her ruin it.

“Sleep.” She covered her ear with both hands.

She usually enjoyed his playful bouts, but right now, it was just plain annoying.

“I was thinking we could take a mini vacation. To the Oasis.” He looked down at her.

“The Oasis?” Her head popped up from under the pillow, both eyes open and on him now.

“We were never allowed to go when we were kids.” He continued now that he had her attention.

“We have a lot to do Gaara. I don’t know if this is a good time to take a vacation, even if it is a mini one.” The Suna hospital was busier than it had ever been, bringing in revenue from all the nearby villages and smaller nations that sent their sick and wounded to them for her expertise, care and attention. 

Through her efforts and talent, Sakura was almost single handedly refilling the vaults that had been nearly drained during the last two wars and due to Gaara’s quick mind to see trends in the market, it was multiplying by leaps and bounds. Suna was becoming known as one of the soon to be richest villages in the five great nations.

As such, Gaara’s Kazekage duties were endless and Iwa had been getting more and more aggressive toward Suna teams out on missions lately. It seemed they clashed whenever they came into contact out in the field. 

Kumo on the other hand had been more and more cordial, the Raikage even sending a personal messenger with his congratulations on their engagement that he had heard of from merchants traveling from Suna, over the smaller countries of Rain and Sound to Kumo.

“Just a few days.” He insisted. “Temari and Kankuro can watch Suna while we are away.”

“Well, I don’t know.” She was still worried, her new students were due to arrive soon. It would look bad if she wasn’t there to greet them herself.

Gaara could tell he was slowly winning her over. “You haven’t been out of the village for a while. Maybe we will run into a decent enough candidate for your puppet you want to make?”

Her eyes brightened at the prospect and possibility. “Just a few days?” 

He nodded.

“Okay, but we need to be back before my new students get here.” She wanted to make sure they were back in time.

“Of course.” Gaara was pleased.

“Can I go back to sleep now?” She pulled the blankets up and over her head trying to shut him out.

He didn’t answer her, the room was quiet. Just as she was about to pull the blanket from her head and look to see where he had gone she felt a little tickling caress on her hip where his fingers were tugging gently on her sleeping shorts.

“Gaara.” She rolled over onto her back.

“Hum?” He made an inquisitive noise of innocence, his hands moving up from her hips to pull on her waist, pulling her toward him, under him.

“I wanted to get some more sleep ya know.” She kissed him on the nose as he moved over top of her pinning her underneath him.

“This is better though.” She could feel his arousal through his thin pajama bottoms.

“Gaara.” She turned her head to the side letting him kiss gentle kisses down the side of her neck.

“Sakura.” He purred, his hands pushing her top up, bunching it up under her arms until she lifted her arms up over her head to accommodate him.

It was still at least two hours before dawn, but his eyes glowed a soft dim yellow in the moonlight. There was a full moon she realized. He was always more amorous during a full moon. His Kazekage duties kept him busy as did her work at the hospital. They had fallen into the habit of falling into bed and falling asleep with a simple kiss and cuddle lately.

Right now though, it seemed both Gaara and Shukaku had other plans and Sakura knew she wouldn’t be sleeping anymore that night. Giving into his touches she closed her eyes. They were still waiting until they were officially married but she couldn’t fault him for wanting that closeness, for wanting to touch her to feel her naked beside him in their bed. 

A small exhale of his breath over her chest had her arching her back in pleasure as his lips fastened to her nipple, his hand on it’s partner massaging it gently, rolling the tip between his fingers, then under his palm.

“Let me make you feel good Sakura.” A hand slid down lower, pulling at the ties of her shorts, then tugging them down, off of her hips.

She nodded,eyes still closed, her feet kicking the shorts off the rest of the way to the end of the bed, bunching up under the blanket. Gentle fingers moved in little circles over her sex, teasing her with his gentleness, barely touching her. It was driving her mad. 

He could feel her impatience and smiled into her breast biting down gently, sliding one finger into her wetness, then two and curling his fingers up into the spot he knew would have her arching and moving against his hand soon.

“Ungh.” She moaned and arched her back, her hips rising off the bed in an attempt to draw him deeper, trying to get closer to him.

His redhead lifted from her breast to watch her face. He loved the way she bit her bottom lip and tossed her head from side to side, soft little mewls escaping her lips, only to part with the release of an unexpected gasp as he twisted his fingers inside of her.

“You’re so beautiful Sakura.” He adored her.

“Gaara, please.” She whispered, her eyes opening slightly, unfocused with the pleasure he was giving her.

“Come for me Sakura. I want to see you come for me. I want to feel your pleasure, your release and know it was me who did it to you, gave you that pleasure.” 

His voice was deeper, softer, it made the pressure throb inside of her, his fingers stroking her intimately while his voice flowed over her ears and settled in her head.

He could feel her walls tighten around his fingers, her pleasure dripping down his wrist. Gaara pressed his forehead into the side of her cheek, she was trembling against him, under him. “Sakura. I love you.” Another finger slid into her as he pulled the two first ones out, pushing three back in and up, curling down, his thumb over her sensitive nerves swiping back and forth with the rhythm of her pulse.

Sakura’s nails dug into his forearm where she gripped it tightly, holding onto him holding onto her. 

He could feel it, the moment she lost control, the moment she gave into his efforts, her head tossed violently to the left and her back arched off of their bed, she bit her bottom lip hard and her eyes flew open finding his. “Gaara.” She called out to him and he felt his own arousal throb against the side of her leg in response.

Slowly, he relaxed his hold on her. Slowly her nails released his forearm leaving little half moon indents in his skin. He pressed his forehead to hers, felt her rapid pants against his lips as he kissed her, bringing her back down from her high slowly. A smile curved her lips.

“That was wonderful.” She breathed out with a satisfied sigh.

Gaara withdrew his fingers from her, wiping them on their bedsheets and gathered her into his arms. Her body glowed with the after calm of her arousal, her scent was strong and overpowering his senses. Quick and wet, his tongue flickered out against her sweat slick skin.

“I love the way you taste after you come for me.” He buried his face in her neck and pulled her up and over him.

“I love the way you touch me, the way you make me want you.” Her hands came up to frame his face as she smiled down at him.

His red locks were spiked and disheveled, her hair she knew, must be a tangled mess, but neither of them cared. His hardness was pressed up against her belly. She moved herself up a bit, teasing him with her wet.

“Sakura.” He warned. 

Everytime she did this, it was harder and harder for him to control his need to be inside of her, his desire to take her, fill her, own her. He growled low, his fingers digging into the flesh of her hips to keep her still.

“I want to make you feel good too, like you make me feel good Gaara.” She purred into his ear, nipping at his neck, rocking up against his hard cock that was throbbing against her wet.

“Damn it Sakura.” He groaned. “I won’t be able to stop from…”

Sakura lifted herself up and then lowered herself back down over his desire, wetting him with her lips until she slid seamlessly over him, lifting up at the top, then sliding her wet back down over his length.

“So wet. So hot.” He murmured, the tip of his cock catching in the crux of her entrance, she paused and looked down at him. Slowly pressing his head inside of herself, lowering herself down a little then stopping.

“Sakura wait, you said…” He was trying so hard, he was trying so hard not to thrust up, to enter her, to push past that last barrier that would make her his forever.

“You wanted to do this right, you wanted to wait, if you keep going I can’t...I can’t stop myself please…” He opened his eyes he hadn’t known he had closed and looked up into her beautiful green eyes. Light was coming, the night had faded, dawn was coming.

He could see the indecision in her eyes, could see the want, the lust that barely rivaled his own. She moved down just a little and his eyes closed, his hips moved, he felt himself slid into her a little at a time until…”No.” He lifted her from him, setting her gently on the bed beside him, stroking her body with one hand, holding her hair with the other, kissing her hard.

“I too want to do this right.” He told her and she nodded.

“I’m sorry Gaara.” She blushed a deep pink.

“Don’t be, I want you, more than you know. I want you the right way though, like you said. I want normal too, or as close as we can get to it.” He smiled at her, her eyes sparkled green with the rays of the rising sun. He hoped he wouldn’t regret stopping her. Her birthday couldn’t come soon enough.


	39. Chapter 39

Amber eyes narrowed at the disgusting display before him. ‘This is what Hanzo of the Salamander thought was great?’ Sasori scoffed. ‘The weak giving out titles to the weak. What was this world coming to’, he thought to himself.

“Too easy.” He flicked his finger and the man dropped to the floor.

Sasori would never admit it but Orochimaru had given him a bit more of a challenge than he had originally thought he would, but he hadn’t thought he would be much of a challenge to begin with. Traitors or heroes, Sasori didn’t care, they were all the same to him, lumps of degenerate flesh, imperfections on a constantly rotating imperfect world.

Mentally checking off the inevitable demise of the man who had once threatened the welfare and the future of his Sakura, he left Orochimaru’s hideout and traveled swiftly south, into the Land of Fire, as the smoke rose in a steady spiral to the sky behind him. His cores should be ready for a test implantation. He wanted to test at least one before he had to go back to the Akatsuki base in Rain.

“Kazekage Sama. Orochimaru’s hideouts were all burned to the ground, we do not know if the man has perished or if he has gone into hiding after being hunted so relentlessly.” The Suna Anbu bowed his head to Gaara as he gave his report.

The Anbu team had been gone over a month, had tracked the Sannin from land to land, hideout to hideout only to find them all either burning, or burned down before their arrival. The only tell tale sign, a scorpion carved into the rock at a few of the hideout entrances or a faint chakra signature left among the cooling ash.

“Sasori.” Gaara rolled the name off his tongue with interest.

So, his Uncle hadn’t left it to chance, hadn’t given Gaara the opportunity for his revenge on his Father and the man that had taken blood and chakra from his Mate when she had only been six years old. Gaara supposed it was fair, Sasori also had a right to revenge on the man. She had been his student and young at the time, newly acquired, he would have considered her his possession then, and if Gaara knew his Uncle, he still did.

Gaara nodded to the Anbu. “Thank you. Please take a week off for your efforts. Inform your commander. I will sign your release once I receive it. Get some rest.”

“Thank you Kazekage Sama.” The Anbu bowed and his team followed him out of the office.

‘He must be dead’, Sasori either took the body or ruined it from recovery. Gaara didn’t trust his Uncle with many things but he did trust him to follow through on something as important to him as this would have been. Gaara had, after all, read the journals.

Rasa had discovered Sakura’s parentage, years after he had made the despicable deal with the Sannin. 

Orochimaru had approached him only two years after Sasori had taken her in as his student and had bought, at an incredible price, some of her flesh and blood from Rasa, who had just sent Sasori out on a mission, leaving Sakura alone and defenseless against his greed. Rasa hadn’t understood though, didn’t know why her blood and tissue were so important to the Sannin, but he had needed money desperately to fund his war efforts and had taken the carrot.

Gaara had learned after reading the journals, several years after the fact, Rasa had tried to buy back the precious items he had sold the Sannin, once he had decided to marry Sakura to Gaara, but the Sannin had refused and had killed every assassin Rasa had sent to take back the stolen sins.

Rasa had made the mistake of telling Sasori of his error, of his desires and Sasori had never forgiven him for such a betrayal. It had been the basis for his death. Sasori never forgot a wrong done to him, he waited and bided his time, before he could exact his revenge.

Gaara looked down at the report in his hands and crumpled it, poking it into the fire that burned in the open design of the fireplace on the furthest interior wall of his office. ‘Rest in peace Father’, Gaara closed his eyes to the heat and tilted his head back.

The more of his Father’s journals that he had read the more he had started to understand him. He had cursed him, had sworn to strike his name from Suna history, but now that he was Kazekage, had been for a year now...he was starting to understand why his Father had done some of the heinous things he had done and wondered, would he have done it any differently, was he any better than his Father…

Sakura packed a bag for both herself and Gaara, sealing it and a few other things into a small storage scroll. There was a new schedule posted at the hospital for her short vacation. It would be good for her new students to earn names for themselves and fill into their new titles. She enjoyed healing but her passion was still poisons and other ‘artistic’ avenues. Sakura would be pleased when there were a few more trained doctors to run her hospital so she could go back to focusing on her other projects.

It would still be another day, maybe two before they left for the Oasis. Gaara had two meetings he couldn’t get out of. She had to admit, it would be nice to get away for a few days. 

She could feel Gaara moving toward their rooms as she looked between a sun hat and a scarf, settling on the scarf as he opened the door to their rooms, and sealed it into the scroll. She immediately felt a wave of his chakra, it flowed over the floor into their room and she wondered at it. He usually kept his chakra contained, but today, as he entered their rooms he let it fall down around him .

Sakura poked her head out of their bedroom door. “Everything okay?” She asked.

His chakra wasn’t threatening to her, she enjoyed the feel of it against her skin. He had been in a particularly good mood since that morning and she had found herself in a similarly good mood right along with him.

“Everything is perfect. I had an idea I wanted to speak to you about.” He pulled her over to their couch, a smile on his lips.

“What if we extended this mini vacation into an actual one. For our honeymoon. Your birthday is in two months roughly, your new students will be here then and we won’t be able to leave once they get here, not alone and not together. We are already going to be gone for three days, why not get married now, and add a few more days onto our little vacation?” He smiled at her.

“Oh! Well um…” She thought about it. What was the difference of two months really and he was right they wouldn’t be able to leave after her students came. This mini vacation had been on impulse, they hadn’t planned on having a honeymoon, but this was…” That’s a great idea Gaara!”

Sakura hugged him and he hugged her back. His excitement and good mood were more clear to her now. She could feel herself being pulled into his good mood and grinned with him.

“Are you ready?” He asked her.

“Now? You want to get married now?” She squeaked.

“Yes and we can leave tonight. I canceled my two meetings.” He pulled her up by her hands and was moving her to the door.

“Wait! I’m not dressed, I mean, I want to change my clothes.” She protested, she had come from the hospital and was still in her lab coat.

“Hurry.” He spun her by the waist and pushed her gently toward their bedroom.

Sakura paused by the door and turned to look back at him. “Are you sure? This is what you really want?”

“I have been wanting to marry you since we were four Sakura. Are you sure?” He asked her.

“Yes.” She turned and threw on clean clothes and brushed her hair in record time, was back beside him where his sand rose up around him and they vanished from their rooms.

They touched back down in the manse’s dining hall. Lights were lit and strung across the ancient candle sconces that lined the walls. It was decorated simply but Sakura thought it was beautiful.

Gaara adjusted his Kazekage robes and offered Sakura his hand, she took it and he led her to the other end of the hall where his brother and sister were waiting for them beside Daishu, Suna’s oldest council member.

“Princess, Kazekage.” Daishu bowed formally.

“Daishu Sama.” Sakura let go of Gaara’s hand to hug the older man.

“So nice to see you my dear. I see you’ve trained us three new excellent doctors to keep us all in good health. I went in yesterday for a crick in my back and the little brown haired girl fixed me right up.” He smiled at her.

“I’m very pleased to hear that Daishu Sama.” Sakura liked the old man, he had been one of Gaara’s main and most influential supporters from the beginning of his office.

“Well my dear, are you ready? I believe the Kazekage here is eager to start a family.” The old man laughed and wheezed at his attempt at humor.

Gaara smiled without denial and Sakura blushed.

“Ah to be young again. Now stand here dear and yes, you here Kazekage Sama, now then, let’s see here the words ah yes.” Daishu cleared his throat as Temari stepped up and to the side of Sakura, Kankuro doing the same next to Gaara.

“An old saying has it, that a man is courage and a woman kindness. This has a pleasing blend of symmetry and contrast, and like many things pleasing, is quite false.” Daishu spoke gently looking from Gaara to Sakura.

His words of wisdom fell over them like a summer rain, warm but not without warning. Sound but not without flaws.

“Courage and Kindness are inseparable. If one seems to exist without the other, beware.” Daishu looked from Sakura to Gaara, his words heavy in his throat.

“You are in the presence of cowardice and cruelty disguised.” Daishu joined Gaara’s hand with Sakura’s.

“Love is not blind and while some might fall and some might falter, you two must never give up on one another. I have seen you both grow into the shinobi you are today. You are both kindness and both courage. That is something that is easily forgotten, something easily set aside, and almost impossible to get back once lost.” Daishu stepped back, his hands falling from their two joined ones between them.

“Kazekage, congratulations on your beautiful bride, and you my dear.” He turned to Sakura.”Keep him in line won’t you?”

Kankuro choked next to Gaara but Gaara smiled. “She always does.”

“Kiss her idiot.” Temari shoved Sakura forward, toward Gaara.

They disappeared in a whirl of sand.

“Aww man I wanted to see them kiss.” Kankuro complained.

“You’re so gross Kankuro.” Temari smacked him.

“Well, now that that’s done...don’t let the place go to hell while the Kazekage is on his honeymoon. I’d hate to see his reaction if he got back and the place was burnt to the ground.” Daishu laughed loudly all the way out of the room.

“Was he always like that when we were younger or is he going senile?” Kankuro craned his neck to look at the old man one last time before he rounded the corner.

“Idiot.” Temari hit her brother over the head.

“He’s married.” Temari grinned at Kankuro.

“To Sakura.” Kankuro grinned back at his sister then frowned.

“What do you think Uncle is going to do?” Kankuro asked.

“Gaara knows what he’s doing. Between him and Sakura, I think it will be okay.” Temari tried to smile at her brother but the moment was ruined. They walked out of the dinning hall each in their own heads.

Gaara held Sakura to him as he kissed her back in their rooms. She was his, finally. She was his and not his Uncles and now there was nothing that could take her away from him, nothing, not even his Uncle could break their bond now.

_Shukaku smiled adoringly at their mate. She was perfect for them. He had listened to the elder councilman’s words and had agreed full heartedly. She was kindness and courage, light and dark, a perfect combination for him and the boy, for him and Gaara, he corrected himself. Finally, she was theirs. Shukaku laid down content for the first time in decades, in a hundred years or two hundred years he couldn’t recall ever being this happy before. He would give them their moment together, he would take a nap and let them enjoy this new beginning in their lives._

“I love you Gaara.” 

He was moving her slowly backward into their bedroom, gently pulling on the ties of her pants.

“I love you Sakura.”

Her swift fingers were gathering the silk of his Kazekage robes between her fingers and pushing them back and off over his shoulders. They fell with a soft slithering to the floor of their bedroom as he picked her up and laid her on her back, pulling her pants from her legs and adding them to the growing pile of clothing on their bedroom floor.

“I’ll be gentle.” he promised her.

Sakura nodded her head, not trusting her voice. It wasn’t that she was nervous, they had touched before but this was something more something special and she knew after tonight, after this moment, neither of them could turn back. She closed her eyes, his fingers ran across the smooth expanse of her tummy, featherlight and teasingly gentle. A flash of red hair and amber eyes jolted her eyes open.

She must have jerked or made some small noise of protest because Gaara’s hands pulled away from her skin and a look of concern and uncertainty fell over his face.

“It will be okay Sakura. We can go slow if you like. I know it is different for you, it will hurt but I love you, I will try very hard to make this as painless as I can. Tell me what to do, what can I do to make this easier for you?” 

Guilt fell heavy over her heart. ‘Damn you Sasori’, she hated him. She hated that she was thinking of him now, of all times on her wedding night. She hated him…

“I’m sorry Gaara. I just, this is...I want this. I love you.” She wasn’t going to let Sasori ruin this for her too.

Gaara adored her, loved her, she owed it to him to give him all of her tonight. She pushed Sasori from her mind, there was no place for him there in her wedding bed.

“Kiss me again Gaara, touch me, please.” She took his hands and put them back where he had had them on her tummy, laid back on their bed and drew his mouth to hers.

“I keep telling you I love you, but it isn’t enough.” He tugged her shirt off over her head and pushed it off the edge of their bed.

“I’m not a poet, Sakura, I can’t write love songs.” She moved his pants down his hips a little at a time until he could kick them off with his feet and to the floor.

With one hand he reached up and around, pulled his shirt off over his head to add it to their pile of clothes they had discarded.

“I will love you and only you forever though. I will give you anything you ask for, whatever you want, if I can get it, it’s yours.” His voice was choked with emotion, he was pouring his heart out to her.

Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. This is what she had wanted. This is what she had never had. Unconditional love. “You’re perfect Gaara. Perfect for me. I just want you. You’re all I've ever wanted, more than I could have ever hoped for.”

She had purposely left her wraps and her underwear off, his eyes glowed as he looked at her. Her cheeks warmed at his attention, he had never looked at her naked body so openly before, so obviously and she was a little unsure, a little embarrassed. Subconsciously she started to cover herself, her arms came up to lay over her chest and she started to close her legs.

“No, please. Don’t hide from me. You’re so beautiful, Sakura. I mean it, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He pulled her hair loose and spread it out over the pillow under her head.

“You have the most beautiful hair.” Fingers picked up a thick lock of her pastel pink hair and brought it up to his lips where he kissed it and ran it over his top lip.

“I adore you. Let me worship you. Let me take my time and make you feel good, Sakura. We have the rest of our lives to make it official, tonight it can just be about you if you like?” Moving slowly, inch by inch he kissed her. 

He kissed her temple, her nose, her top lip , then her bottom. Little hands rose up and ran their fingers through his spiky locks following the movement of his head down and over her body. Slowly, as promised, he kissed her neck, one hand tracing lazy circles around the tip of her breast teasingly slow, lovingly gentle.

Warm open mouth kisses moved down her chest to lay wet laving flicks over her nipple. Under the palm of his other hand her nipple rose like the one in his mouth and he smiled against her breast, turning his head to lay his cheek against her peak. “You’re mine Sakura.”

“Yes Gaara. I’m yours.” Her voice broke, a tear slid out of the side of one eye as he looked up at her.

“Don’t be afraid Sakura. I promise I will take care of you. Not because you can’t take care of yourself, but because I want to.”

Sakura closed her eyes and nodded again. “I trust you Gaara.”

He pushed his body down further on the bed, his fingers running down along the sides of her hips to her inner thighs. 

“I trust you too Sakura.” Slowly, he slipped his palms between her legs, one on each thigh and pushed her legs apart spreading her open before him. He heard her swallow.

“So beautiful.” he bent his head to her virgin sex and kissed her lightly. 

“I love you and you’re mine. You’re finally mine.” Gaara closed his eyes and inhaled her scent, sweet and musky, pure so pure, for him.

Sakura swallowed again, she could feel his breath on her sensitive skin, one hand was on his head, her fingers tangled in his hair, the other gripped the covers of their bed, painfully tight. “Gaara, please.” She whimpered and her voice broke.

Pressing her legs open wide he ran his tongue over her sex. “Like this Sakura?” he hummed sliding a hand under her ass and lifting her up.

“Yes Gaara, please Gaara.” She begged.

With methodical calm he slid his tongue into her body, his lips moving against the bundle of nerves as she squirmed under his mouth. One hand lifting her up more, closer, so he could move deeper into her, taste more of her, the other pressed down on her stomach keeping her in place.

“I'll do this to you every night if you’ll let me. You can wake up to my mouth on you every morning if you want.” Gaara spoke against the lips of her sex, his mouth running back and forth laying open kisses across her wet.

“Yes.” She moaned, “Please.” She whimpered.

Sakura tugged on his hair, she wanted more, she needed to feel, she wanted him inside of her, she wanted him to claim her, hard. “Gaara.” A growl. “Now.” A command.

A smirk...he moved up her body with irritating slowness. “I promise I will be gentle but if you want me to stop at any time you must tell me. Communication remember?” He teased her.

“I understand.” She swallowed and bit her bottom lip.

“Are you afraid Sakura?” The look in her eyes worried him, she looked frightened almost but something more, something that made him want to push into her hard to hear her scream, alluring. Wanton, sultry...the words flooded his mind making him cover her and bite down hard on her neck.

Sakura’s whole body rose to meet his challenge. The bite hurt and felt good at the same time, she wanted more. “Again.” She panted and pulled on his hair. “Again.” She demanded.

Spreading her legs with his knee he pressed his erection hard into her wetness and bit her neck again. Her body rose up against his again, her fingers tugged and pulled at his hair.

“Now, please I have to..we...now Gaara.” She was already tossing her head, already biting her lips to near bleeding...she was breathtaking, wild and his.

“Wife.” He lined himself up pressing the tip of his want into her virginity.

“I am your wife.” Sakura held her breath as he moved deeper into her.

“I am your husband.” His hips moved into her slowly, little by little he felt her walls open and contract around his cock.

“Ungh.” She gasped as he hit the final barrier of their union, the last step to make it official, to make her forever his.

“Sakura are you alright?” He knew he couldn’t stop now even if he had wanted to and he didn’t, he didn’t want to.

He wanted to bruise her, to hurt her, to bite her and make her bleed but he knew he couldn’t, shouldn’t want that and he groaned.

“I’m okay, more Gaara, more.” her eyes were closed. “Do it. Now.” She commanded and he thrust the rest of his cock up and into her breaking the last line of defense.

“Sakura.” His forehead fell against hers in a gasping groan that choked him.

“Don’t move, just for a minute.” She didn’t cry. She didn’t move. Slowly she could feel her walls adjusting to his size, to the foreign object in her body. She could feel the pulsation, the throbbing in her core and she moaned quite unintentionally.

“Sakura, now can I please love, I want to feel you.” his voice was strained, he was trying to hold still trying to do as she had asked for her sake.

“I’m okay Gaara.” Her hips rocked gently up, testing.

Both pain and pleasure shot like hot energy through her insides and her head tossed back and to the side. “Fuck.”

They both laughed. Taken by surprise they had both opened their eyes and were looking at one another.

“I love you Gaara.” She whispered smoothing back the longer locks of red hair that had fallen into his eyes.

“My wife.” Gaara pushed into her, his arms bending so that he could rest his weight on his forearms instead of her chest. He looked down into her eyes. They were such a lighter green than usual, they glowed, they shone brightly, they sparkled and it was for him. She was for him, all his.

“I didn’t know it could feel like this.” She watched him. He was so handsome with his sea green eyes and his dampened red hair.

“Neither did I.” he pressed into her then drew out slowly, his eyes closed, he pushed back in deep against the walls of her inner temple, she released a strangled sort of groan and his lips twisted into a smile.

“Did that feel good Sakura, did you like that?” He asked.

“Yes.” She wanted more.

“Do it again.” She moved under him and he let out a strangled gasp of his own.

Slowly, they found a rhythm, talking, communicating with one another, discovering together what it was like to be that close, to have someone in you, to be inside of someone you loved more than yourself, more than anything you ever thought you loved before. 

Her walls started to tighten around his cock and her nails dug into his back. “Gaara, something...it’s nice...so intense, I can’t, I’m.” She gasped out in between words.

Gaara had found that by pulling out to almost his tip and pressing back into her fast made her moan, he found that canting his hips upward while deep inside her made her inner walls tighten and clench around his cock and he found if he bit her neck hard while he pumped in and out of her ruthlessly with long fast deliberate strokes...she screamed his name and tore open his back to bleeding with her nails.

“Fuck Sakura I’m, I think this is…” He bucked into her hard, his one hand fisting her hair pulling her head back as he buried himself deep inside of her, his other hand gripping her hip hard pulling her body up to meet his demand. The pressure that was building up inside of his cock seemed impossible, his knees were buckling underneath him and he felt like for a moment his chest was going to burst from holding his breath.

Sakura gasped and moaned underneath him, her body writhing and pushing up against his in her own demand for release. Her nails dug into his back, but he didn’t care, he could feel little rivets of blood dripping down his sides. “Anything, anything Sakura I’ll give you anything, my soul, my title, my anything, you’re my all, you’re everything.” He pushed into her one last time, the pressure releasing in a spasm, an explosion from deep within his soul.

Her eyes flew wide as the intensity of the pulsation deepened within her, she could feel it in her womb, the pulling and the jerking of her muscles in reaction to his need. She was his, like she had never been anyone’s before, and he was hers.

“I love you Gaara.” She closed her eyes, her body trembling against his, his body trembling against hers.

“Mine.” He panted in her ear. “Mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “An old saying has it, that a man is courage and a woman kindness. This has a pleasing blend of symmetry and contrast, and like many things pleasing, is quite false.
> 
> Courage and Kindness are inseparable. If one seems to exist without the other, beware.
> 
> You are in the presence of cowardice and cruelty disguised. “
> 
> Aki No Hashi  
> 1311  
> 'Autum Bridge'


	40. Chapter 40

It was raining again. It was always raining, in Rain. The slow drops fell around him in a depressing tattoo like a march of death. One foot in front of the other, slowly he made his way to the Akatsuki base. Any villagers that nodded to him in polite greeting, were ignored. It was the cloak and nothing more. A symbol that tied him, momentarily, to an organization with vain objectives. So much like any other organization, village, or clan. Pointless.

He had heard the talk of course, on his way back to the base in Rain. They said that the Kazekage was engaged...to his sister. Sasori had scoffed, the little brat, what the hell did she think she was doing. He knew which sister he was engaged to. Sakura. His Sakura. The fools. 

He had specifically told her...not to marry Gaara, that he would be back for her, that there was no nameless ‘she’, there was only her. Why didn’t she understand that, she had touched the cylinder, had felt his intent, his desire for her, his love…

Sasori recognized that he might have relayed his feelings and thoughts to her better but he hadn’t seen the need. He had expected her to be more obedient, to know him better, to...understand him better. Her actions dictated otherwise… The error of his judgment was the hottest topic in the five great nations and he needed to rectify his mistake...quickly and severely.

Part of him was amused and proud of her courage, her boldness. The other part was disappointed at her foolishness, her denial. She belonged to him and no one else. She should have known this, he thought he had made it very clear over the years, the only man she would ever belong to, was him.

Impatiently he lifted his hand and passed the ring over the seal that would open the door to the base for him. He had mentioned several more efficient and easier ways for the members to open the door to the base but they had been ignored. ‘It lacks security’, he had told them. ‘It’s fine’, they had replied. Inefficient, the lot of them. 

There were a few very skilled shinobi in the organization, Konan being one of them, he would admit that but none that held more than a passing interest to him. He was bored there, but he didn’t plan on being there much longer. Not when, certain events, required his attention.

He had almost made it to his assigned room when he was stopped by Tobi.

“Sasori San. Welcome back. I hope you are not too tired from your travels to go on a mission with Kisame. You leave in two hours, to capture the three tails.” Tobi didn’t wait for a reply.

Sasori watched the masked man turn and walk back down the corridor to his room, leaving Sasori to stand alone. His defection from this ridiculous organization couldn’t come too soon. The things he did for her, that she didn’t appreciate…

‘She doesn’t know’, he reminded himself. Well, it’s about time she did. He opened the door to his room and stepped inside, closing the door behind him, he needed a new plan...things were happening much more quickly than he had anticipated. 

She had always been a challenge, had always seemed to surprise him with her actions, her boldness...her stubbornness. He would treat this no differently than any obstacle they had had to overcome before.

He had wanted her as a student and had killed her ‘father’ when he had protested. Rasa had been a fool and had sold her blood and tissue, he had killed the buyer and had taken it back. She defied his wishes and was going to marry his nephew, she would be punished and if Gaara resisted, he would kill him. To Sasori, the solution was simple. It was the outside factors like the Hokage, Suna and Sakura’s misguided free will that were an annoyance to him. 

She would fight him on it, he knew...and he couldn’t wait to break her. She was strong, she was intelligent and talented...his perfect match. He paused and tapped his fingers on the seal of his storage scroll...could he break her? 

...a slow wicked smile curved his lips, if he could it would be worth it and if he couldn’t...the anticipation of their fight was almost as thrilling to him as the thought of bedding her. She was such a magnificent creature, he looked forward to seeing her again.

First, he would go with Kisame to capture the three tails. The two tails and the four tails were already in their possession. Pein, the Leader had gone himself to get the six and seven tails...and Konan had captured the five tails. After those, the only ones that remained were the one tail, the eight and the nine tailed fox…

Sasori had hoped to bring her to his side before the Akatsuki went after his nephew, he hadn’t wanted her to get in the way of the one tail’s capture, and didn't want her to get hurt if Pein or Konan decided to get the one tail themselves. While she was a prodigy and his student, she was no match for the Leader of the Akatsuki or his ‘friend’, Konan, but he knew she would fight them to the death to protect Gaara. He had to get her out of Suna and away from her...fiance...before the Akatsuki went for the one tail.

The nine tailed fox was a bit of an unknown factor for him. He wasn’t sure how close his Sakura had gotten to her brother but he doubted it was close. What would she do...he wondered, would she try to protect him, should he factor that into his plan as well? No, it was impossible. He had to have one plan, that covered everything and the one thing he wanted most. To have her to himself, that had always been his plan, from the very beginning.

“Make sure you stick to the schedule I created. Fill out all of the paperwork and leave it in order on my desk. No one, I mean no one is allowed in my lab for any reason. Try not to kill anyone until I get back.” Sakura told her three former students at the gates of Suna while Gaara gave his own orders again to his brother and sister.

Sakura turned from her students to look out over the desert, this was going to be really nice, she had never had a vacation growing up. Gaara gave one last nod to his brother and sister who waved to Sakura as he took her hand and they walked out the gates of their village together.

“I am really looking forward to this.” Gaara said only after a few steps past the gate.

“I hope everything is okay while we’re gone.” Sakura turned her head back to look behind her but Gaara tugged on her hand making her turn back to him.

“Nope. We have already left, no more thinking of the hospital or anything else in Suna.” He smiled at her pushing all the paperwork he knew was sitting on his desk to the back of his mind as well.

“Five days.” Sakura giggled.

“Five days of each other and nothing else.” He kissed her hand pulling her into his embrace.

“We should hurry up and get there then, so we can start doing nothing.” She laughed and he smiled, his sand rising up around them.

Evening had just barely set into the Oasis when they appeared.

“We aren’t really that far from Suna are we?” Sakura asked Gaara as he opened the door to the small house his Father had built at the edge of the Oasis.

“No. It is far enough to be considered a vacation spot though. There were never any cities or villages out this way. This was Shukaku’s territory before he was captured and sealed into generations of Suna royalty. No one comes here but us.” He told her setting their bags down inside the door and pulling the storage scroll he had brought with him out.

“There is something I would like to do, will you come with me?” He held his hand out to her.

“Of course, what are we doing?” Sakura asked.

“I am going to let Shukaku out.” He smiled at her surprise.

“We have been talking and have come to an arrangement of sorts.” He explained as they moved out away from the Oasis a bit into the barren sand.

“There are many unique and rare medicinal plants here in the Oasis, it was another reason for my choosing this spot for us, for you. Shukaku explained to me that many of them come out at night. They lay dormant under the sand in the day to hide from the harsh sun and come out at night, stretching their leaves in the moonlight. They are called moon flowers and are one of the most rare flowers in the desert. I thought they were a myth, until Shukaku told me about them. He’s seen them.” Gaara smiled at Sakura. He knew she would want to see them, harvest some and take them home to learn all about their mystical powers of healing.

“Shukaku said he would tell us how to find them, harvest them and store them if while we were here, I let him out.” Gara let go of her hand and his eyes glazed over a bit as he communicated with Shukaku.

“Step back.” Gaara told her, making several hand signs and focusing internally.

Gaara stood before Shukaku in his prison inside his mind. Great yellow eye looked out from behind the cursed bars at the redhead, his tail flicking back and forth behind him.

‘You promise not to rampage, or kill us?’ Gaara asked the tanuki.

‘I gave you my word, we have our mate. Without you, I have no her, so yes, I promise.’ Shukaku said honestly.

Gaara knew, if not for Sakura the beast would have tried to take over and escape long ago, would have killed him and let them die to escape the imprisonment. It was only because of her he was steady, complying. She was both of their mates.

‘We will have to explain it to her Shukaku, she doesn’t know or she doesn’t understand I don’t think. Not yet.’ Gaara said.

‘I let you have her last night, tonight is my turn. You promised me. We will explain it to her. You promised.’ Shukaku persisted.

‘I did. We will. You have to promise me understanding though. If she is not willing, if she tells you to stop, you must.’ Gaara wanted the tanuki to understand that Sakura was human, she wasn’t a tanuki and his ways were not their ways.

‘She is our mate, I would not treat her with disrespect.’ Shukaku was offended.

Gaara nodded. ‘Then come out and meet her properly and we can explain it to her together.’

Sakura watched as Gaara’s sand rose up around him, whirled and moved in small sporadic circles, then fell away to reveal a small, adorably cute little sand raccoon, who blinked and yawned in Gaara’s arms.

“Shukaku?” Sakura had only seen Shukaku in his generated form once, when he had taken control over Gaara. 

“Tsuma(妻)”, Shukaku bowed low on his front paws to Sakura who also bowed.

Shukaku had called her ‘wife’.

“Otto(夫)”, Sakura bowed to the tanuki with respect but the tanuki frowned, at her common use of ‘husband’, though he was pleased she recognized him as such.

“Call me ‘Shujin(主人)’ ”. Shukaku told her.

“No, I will not be calling you that, husband is good, you are not my master Shukaku, as I am not yours.” Sakura giggled at the tanuki, he was so old fashioned but with good reason she supposed.

Shukaku growled and flicked his tail with annoyance.

“Shukaku, be nice, we talked about this. Things are different now, less formal than when you first came here.” Gaara reminded him gently.

“A woman should respect her husband.” Shukaku gave Sakura a side long look and continued to pout.

“Aw Shukaku I respect you. I knew when I married Gaara I was marrying you too.” She bent down and kissed the tanuki on the head.

“You did?” Gaara asked her a bit surprised.

“Well, of course, you are one aren’t you? Two minds but one body? Except now I see you can be two bodies as well.” She smiled down at the smaller Shukaku sitting in the sand before her.

“Yes but while we share one human body, we are both your mate.” Gaara explained.

“It’s my turn tonight flower.” Shukaku rubbed against her leg and purred in delight.

“Your turn?” She asked, confused.

“We share one human body, Sakura.” Gaara repeated, his ears flushed red. “So, tonight Shukaku wants to um, be with you.”

“Be with me...oh!” Sakura blushed. “You can do that?” Sakura asked the little tanuki, not at all sure how she felt about this situation.

“Of course I can!” Shukaku was insulted.

“I didn’t mean, that...I meant, you take over Gaara’s body and then we can…” Sakura trailed off embarrassed by her own words.

“Mate.” Shukaku smiled at her.

“... it would be Gaara’s body, but your consciousness?” She asked, and both males nodded.

“So if I get pregnant it would be…” Sakura’s face was red.

“Mine.” Gaara’s face was almost as red as hers.

“Ah, okay.” Sakura laughed a bit nervously.

“Ours.” Shukaku corrected.

“Yes ours, of course Shukaku.” Sakura smiled down at the tanuki who was now curled up at her feet gazing up at her with adoring eyes. She blushed.

“Whenever we come here to the Oasis Shukaku can roam free, it was his territory before he was captured, it still is I suppose, even though it is under the rule of the land of Wind and considered an extension of Suna.” Gaara waved his hand over the miles and miles of sand that surrounded them.

“So if you come here without me, I want you to take Shukaku with you, since he is very familiar with the area and all it’s dangers.” Gaara explained.

“He can come with me, without you? You can be separated?” She asked curiously.

“Well…” Gaara paused. “Shukaku and I had talked about it and we wanted to propose something to you.”

Gaara looked at Shukaku who had come to sit beside him facing Sakura.

“We want to seal half of my chakra, into you. Since we are mates now. It will protect you, make you stronger and we can be together, always.” Shukaku said excitedly.

“Inside me?” Sakura was surprised and a little wary of the suggestion.

“You are the best Fuuinjutsu Master I know Sakura, you can do it.” Gaara encouraged her.

“It isn’t a matter of my being able to do it or not Gaara, isn’t it, dangerous? How will that affect you?” She looked from Shukaku to Gaara.

“It won’t, not really. I rarely use Shukaku’s chakra, since we have only recently been getting along. It would make you much stronger though, and you would be able to take Shukaku with you, everywhere, he would be able to manifest by you.” Gaara said.

“We’re mates.” Shukaku told her as if she didn’t know and as if those two words settled the matter.

“Would that mean, you would know everything I am thinking and feeling?” She asked Shukaku who nodded.

“Would you? If we share his chakra, would that bond us together too?” She asked Gaara.

“We don't know. It’s never been done before.” He told her honestly.

“I don’t think it would, because you are two separate people, but I would know what both of you were doing at the same time. My consciousness would be in both of you.” Shukaku said.

“So you would be in two places at once?” Sakura guessed.

“Yes.” Shukaku was pleased with her quick thinking.

“How do you want to do it?” Sakura asked.

“You’ll do it then?” Gaara was a little surprised she was agreeing to this so easily, so quickly.

Sakura laughed at his expression. “We are both strong on our own, if we both have Shukaku in us, we will be even stronger Gaara. To protect Suna, yes, I’ll do it.” She said seriously.

“Shall I use the Unnamed Fuinjutsu or the Hakke no Fūin Shiki, and seal the Yin chakra into myself and Shukaku’s Yang chakra in you Gaara?” Sakura asked.

“Split the chakra into Yin and Yang. You take the Yin and seal the Yang into Gaara.” Shukaku told her.

“At least we have lots of room to draw the seal, but maybe could you make a dome Gaara, to make sure the incantation remains in tact while I perform the sealing ritual?” She asked.

“Of course Sakura.” 

...and they began. Sakura drew the Hakke no Fuin Shiki formula on the desert sand using her chakra to stabilize the grains as she did so. When she was done she had both Shukaku and Gaara in their own formulas and she drew the Yin chakra from Gaara, Shukaku’s Yin chakra and sealed it back into Shukaku. After it was completed she took two of her chakra pills and laid down where Gaara had been to draw the Yin chakra from Shukaku and seal it within herself.

As soon as she had finished, her forehead tingled and glowed, her breath felt heavy as she drew air into her lungs and there was a slight burning pain behind her temples. She opened her eyes to see the manifestation of Shukaku disappear with a slight pop only to be replaced with two smaller Shukaku, one beside her and one beside Gaara.

“Sakura, your eyes. They’re yellow.” Gaara swallowed.

“I feel faint.” Sakura brought her hand up to her temple and pressed a chakra finger to her head to alleviate the pain that had been growing there since the sealing.

Her eyes faded back to green. She looked down at Shukaku, then over at Gaara and Shukaku.

“This is so bizarre.” She said looking from one Shukaku to the other, then at Gaara.

“I feel lighter, like a weight has been lifted from my chest.” Gaara flexed his fingers and smiled at Sakura.

“My breath is heavy, I feel weighed down a bit.” She placed her hand over her heart.

“Is that what it feels like to have you in my heart Shukaku?” She felt sad, dejected, sorrowful. She looked down at the little tanuki at her feet.

“How long Shukaku? How long have you felt so alone like this?” Sakura almost wanted to cry. She could feel his lonliness, his depression.

“It’s been better since you came into our lives.” Shukaku admitted rubbing his head up against her leg.

Sakura bent and picked the little tanuki up and held him in her arms kissing his forehead. She looked at Gaara who had come closer to her, a small Shukaku in his own arms.

“I love you, my boys, both of you, so much.” Her one arm rose and pulled Gaara and his Yang Shuaku to her and her Yin Shukaku.

“Sakura, your Yin seal, it’s full.” Gaara tapped her forehead, his eyes wide.

“Of course it is.” Shukaku scoffed at Gaara. “I filled it for her, with my Yin chakra.” He said smugly.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Thank you Shukaku.” Sakura hugged the raccoon to her breast and kissed his head.

‘You’re welcome baby’, Shukaku spoke to her within the confines of her mind for the first time and it startled her.

‘So that’s what it feels like to have you in my head, I always wondered what it was like for Gaara to have you talk to him like this’, she smiled at the raccoon as he looked down at her.

‘Where is this, I mean, I don’t recognize it’, Sakura looked around, they appeared to be in a field somewhere. Little flowers dotted the landscape and tall grass grew up and around them brushing across their ankles.

‘Each person is different. This is your mind Sakura. It is beautiful.’ Shukaku laid down in the grass before her and she sat down beside him petting him absently.

‘Gaara didn’t choose me, I was forced into his head. Up until he was three years old I had a nice sand pit to lay in, to walk around but as he grew older and his world grew colder, bars appeared and locked me away. I think he hated me.’, Shukaku told her, clearly upset.

‘It rained all the time and I was very lonely. The boy never talked to me so I tried to take control, to show him what we could be together. I could tell, he was just as lonely as I was. I wanted to show him, we didn’t have to be alone. We could be together but he didn’t seem to understand and he shut me away. It made me so angry’, Shukaku put his head on his paws.

‘Then you came. You were smart like him, quick like him and I watched you bond and grow together, kill together. You killed, like me, enjoy it, like me and we bonded without you even being aware of it’, Shukaku looked up at her with adoration in his yellow eyes.

‘I loved you too, before we were married, before you loved us. We loved you Sakura’, Shukaku set his head on her leg and sighed.

‘I love you both, don’t worry Shukaku. None of us have to be alone anymore. We all have each other now’, she leaned over and kissed him on his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two Shukaku, one Yin, one Yang. One courage and one kindness. I thought it appropriate for Gaara and Sakura.
> 
> With only Shukaku's Yang chakra, will Gaara change?
> 
> Sasori doesn't seem to know they are married and consummated, what will he do when he finds out...nothing good I'm sure. His own fault...
> 
> I wonder if Shukaku will be better in bed than Gaara...I suppose I'll have to write it and see >.<
> 
> Leave a comment. They are more appreciated than Kudos and stimulate the writing process. If more people are invested in the story, it really does make me want to write more, no joke :)
> 
> Thanks to all of you that have read this and my other works and comment frequently, it helps the creative process and makes me want to try harder.


	41. Chapter 41

Shukaku looked up at his mate as her fingers ran through his fur in her mind. He wondered if she knew, if she understood how special she really was. Most humans treated the tailed beasts as servants, or weapons. This girl, this woman, had always treated him with respect and now that they were mates, she continued to treat him as an equal, had willingly been bonded to him for life by taking his chakra into her body. He was amazed, grateful and adored her.

Shukaku had slowly begun to see how different Sakura was over the years. A vague distraction at first grew into genuine interest. She was fearless, she pushed the boy to do his best, not complain and to get stronger. He admired that. Still, he was hesitant to give his all to the boy, to her. He had been betrayed so many times by humans, used by them, imprisoned within them...the boy hadn’t been any different, hadn’t understood him.

When Gaara met Sakura, things had started to change a little at a time. She saw the world so differently than anyone he had ever met. It had caught his attention, the boy’s and his Uncle’s. Shukaku liked Sasori, admired him and thought him interesting as well. The man was blood lust incarnate, something Shukaku could easily relate to, admire. 

For a very small time, Shukaku had been happy and had accepted that they would all be one Team, for Suna, something he had never wanted before, never even considered before the girl had come into all of their lives.

As the children grew however, Shukaku began to see clear warning signs from the Uncle’s behavior. He was trying to slowly separate the boy from the girl. He was pushing them apart and it hurt Gaara, it hurt Shukaku...he had gotten used to the young girl being close to them, being with them all the time, letting them hold her, kiss her and touch her. 

He didn’t want to let her go. He didn’t want to be alone anymore. He knew if they lost the girl, Gaara would turn in upon himself, forget him...like before. Shukaku knew he had to do something. He just didn’t know what, he wasn’t human...

He saw the way the Uncle looked at the girl, even if the boy did not. Shukaku saw the look of satisfaction on the older man’s face when they accomplished something, or pleased him. Shukaku knew a scheming human when he saw one, and he saw it in Sasori. He noticed the looks lingered longer and longer on the girl as she grew older.

Shukaku recalled their first kill together. The village that had hired them to kill the two small teams of hired nin and then slaughter everyone in the village, every man, woman and child...she had been a vision. She killed with the intent to brutalize, she enjoyed the blood and the screams as much as he did. Methodically she had murdered. Systematically she had gone from one then another regardless of age, sex or affiliation and killed them. There had been no questioning the morality of the situation, no holding back...no mercy and it was then, he knew...he was in love. She was perfect for him, for them.

Her eyes were closed as he looked at her. She looked happy and at peace.

‘Sakura’, Shukaku called out to her from where his head still rested on her leg.

‘Hum?’, she looked down at him.

‘Tanuki are not humans, we don’t always show our love the same way. I will try to be gentle, like Gaara was with you but I can’t promise you I won’t be...a little rough’, he tried to sound apologetic.

‘Gaara wasn’t gentle at the end. I didn’t mind’, she tried to understand what he was saying to her.

‘I saw. He was gentle. I just want to explain. It’s hard. I've only um...had relations with another tanuki before’ Shukaku’s tail twitched against her leg, she didn’t understand.

‘I’ve only done it in my form, not by taking over the body of my host’, he clarified for her.

‘I thought tanuki mated for life?’, she asked.

‘I was not always a tailed beast as you know them, Sakura. I was once the sand spirit of the desert. I wasn’t the only tanuki. I had a wife once but she died, she was killed by the first person who tried to trap me and force me into confinement inside a host. She was...convenient’, Shukaku told her.

Sakura hadn’t known that about Shukaku and she wondered if it was true for the other tailed beasts.

‘So you’ve never been with a human is what you’re trying to tell me?’, she asked.

‘Yes’, but I will treat you well and I want to please you, I watched you with Gaara. I know how’, he assured her.

Sakura blushed. ‘This is strange to me. I didn’t know such a thing was possible’

‘Do you not...want me then?’, Shukaku sounded so defeated she felt terrible.

‘No, I didn’t mean it that way. Gaara and I, we, didn’t really know what we were doing so maybe it is good, if you’ve never been with a human before. I won’t really have much to compare it to’, she said quickly not wanting to upset him.

‘I just wanted to tell you, before we go back to Gaara that, I will try to please you, like he did’, Shukaku said sincerely.

‘I will try to please you too Shukaku, thank you’, she was touched by his words, his feelings. 

When she had agreed to marry Gaara, she did so because she loved him. She had fully expected Shukaku to be part of the deal, part of their marriage but she had never thought he would play such a large part in the physical aspect of their union. 

She had wanted ‘normal’ but she was quickly realizing that ‘normal’ might not be within her spectrum.

‘Let’s go back to Gaara, he is probably wondering what we are doing’, Sakura stood up.

‘Time doesn't pass in here like it does out there. No time has passed, but he knows, it is the same for him and I when he visits me in his place. It is only when his mind remains with his body that we talk in real space and time flows naturally’, he explained.

‘Remarkable’, Sakura murmured as they both pulled themselves back and out of her head.

Gaara drew back from their shared embrace, Shukaku in his arms. Sakura set Yin Shukaku down and looked around them. ‘How odd’, she thought. To be inside your mind in essence, then in reality physically. It would take some getting used to. She hadn’t been born into it like Gaara, or with it already inside of him.

‘How horribly selfish’, she thought to herself again. Rasa had been so selfish to do such a thing to his son, his youngest and most talented son. Sakura thought of Sasori and herself. Like his brother, so selfish and yet, he had killed him...she had never realized how twisted the man was before, had never seen how abnormal all of their lives were, until now.

Shukaku nipped at her fingers that hung at her side to get her attention. She looked down at the little tanuki with affection. Abnormal, yes, they were all abnormal, but cruel...no. They were not cruel to one another, not like Rasa, not like Sasori. Sakura took a deep breath and picked Shukaku up. ‘To new beginnings’, she said to herself.

They went back to the small cabin and made dinner. A light dinner of rice and flaked fish. Side by side they sat on the small porch of the little house and looked out over the still water of the oasis. It shone like a mirror in the moonlight. The silvery black of the water touching the dark sands of the desert, reflecting the stars of the universe.

“I could stay here forever and be happy.” Sakura whispered.

“We will come here as often as we can.” Gaara promised her. He enjoyed being here too, it was calming, peaceful.

Sakura sat at the edge of the wooden porch, her toes making little dents into the sand. The tension throughout dinner was palatable. She could feel Gaara shifting in his seat restlessly, his toe tapping, then stopping when he noticed what he had been doing. Shukaku’s tail swished back and forth like a metronome, consistent, patient but demanding…

‘One human body’, Gaara’s words came back to her and she swallowed hard.

Shukaku’s head lifted and turned toward her. He could feel the nervous energy rolling off of her in waves. “We can wait, if you want. The boy, I mean, Gaara, can have you again tonight if you’re not ready Sakura.”

She jerked a bit in her seat, she had forgotten he could feel what she felt, was inside of her. “I’m not a coward. I won’t shy away from you, it is just different and I’m new at...uh” She hated how unsure of herself she sounded.

“I’ll go slow, or let you lead, if I can?” Shukaku offered.

“Switch with me Gaara.” Shukaku disappeared and Gaara’s eyes glowed yellow.

“Is this better?” Shukaku’s voice came from Gaara’s lips and Sakura swallowed again, her tongue darting out of her mouth to wet her lips. Yellow eyes followed the gesture, then flickered back up to her face, his hand held out to her.

Sakura rose to her feet taking his hand and he led her into the cabin, to the bed and sat her down on the end, their legs tented out before them on the platform style bed mere inches from the flooring.

“Would you like a fire?” Shukaku asked, walking to the private fire pit in the middle of the flooring.

“Ah yes, that would be nice, it will be cold soon.” As the sun had dropped so had the temperature of the desert. Little goosebumps rose over the surface of her skin. She wasn't sure if it was the cold or the anticipation of what she knew was to come that made her skin tingle and her toes curl though as she watched Gaara’s form move about the cabin.

His movements were different even if the body was the same and she wondered again, how different the tanuki would be as a mate. They had been together since Gaara had been born, before he had been born...she looked away from him and out the window. The wind was picking up and the sand moved across the desert in waves.

“The sand is my domain. It moves with my emotions. Surely you’ve noticed that with Gaara, the difference is, I have complete control over the connection, whereas his moves on it’s own for the most part.” Shukaku sat down on the end of the bed beside her as the fire glowed red and orange casting shadows on the floor and walls of the one room cabin.

‘Control’, the word made her choke. She had read about Shukaku in the Suna library when she had started to consider marrying Gaara more seriously. Shukaku enjoyed ‘control’, craved it, and demanded it. Would he...would it be the same with his mate she wondered. A shiver ran down her back and she lifted her head to meet the glowing yellow of Shukaku’s eyes set in Gaara’s face.

“Take your clothes off for me, slowly.” Shukaku watched her.

When she hesitated, he growled. “I could do it for you, but I am trying to be gentle with you.”

Sakura nodded, slipping her arms out of her shirt and pulling it off over her head. Shukaku’s body jerked, his hands fisted at his sides as if to keep himself from grabbing her. His yellow eyes glowed with lust as he watched her slide her pants from her hips, down and then off the ends of her feet. He nodded his approval then stripped his own clothes from his borrowed body and let them fall carelessly to the floor.

“I’ve watched you for so long and not been able to touch you, to claim you, to show you what I feel for you.” Shukaku reached up and fisted some of her hair in his hand, pulling gently, tugging on it, moving her head back.

“Now I can. This will not be quick like the boy. I plan on enjoying myself and making sure you enjoy it too.” He pulled her hair back, forcing her to lay back onto the bed before him.

He was more agile than Gaara, more sure of himself she realized. There was no hesitation in his movements, he demanded her awareness, her cooperation, her lust.

“I’ll try not to hurt you.” She could feel his fangs growing against the skin of her neck as he ran his tongue across her throat, nipping, licking, tasting her.

“I’ll try not to lose control.” He promised her as he bit down on her shoulder hard enough to draw blood.

Sakura stifled the protest that rose to her lips, she bit back her fear that pooled in her stomach mixing with the heat she couldn’t deny. “Shukaku please.”

She wasn’t sure what she was pleading for, but he did. He could feel her desire, could feel the lust growing inside of her demanding his touch. She was wild, his woman, she was strong and wild and his.

‘Ours’, Gaara reminded him annoyingly.

‘Ours’, Shukaku conceded before shutting the boy out to enjoy the naked body before him. It had been so long, so long since he had felt this tension, this want for release. He knew he had to be careful, he didn’t want to break her.

It was warm and wet. She could feel her blood dripping down her shoulder, could feel the heat of his breath as he nuzzled her roughly, felt his tongue shoot out and lap up her blood.

‘Delicious.” He purred, Gaara’s spiky red locks tickling her ear as he drank her blood. “So delicate, so fragile.” He cooed.

Sakura shivered.

“Beg me. Scream for me.” He growled taking her head in his hand again, pulling it back, turning her head to the side exposing her neck to him.

“Shukaku please.” She whispered, unsure what he wanted.

“Not good enough.” He twisted her breast in his hand and she gasped out hard, her eyes flaring with anger.

“Fight me.” He purred.

She could feel the hardness growing in him, the desire, the brutal need to join, to mate and it thrilled her.

Bending down he bit her again, teeth sinking in over her breast making her buck up hard underneath him.

“That’s my girl, fight me, make me yours, dominate me, or I will dominate you and force you into compliance, use you and break you. Fight me Sakura.” Shukaku grinned at her wickedly.

“You said you would be gentle, you said you would try to be like Gaara, that you respected me.” She pushed her way up to a sitting position.

“I also said tanuki are not like humans.” Shukaku pulled her by the arm and turned her over, forcing her head down into the pillow, lifting her bottom up by the waist and rubbing his cock over her entrance.

Sakura kicked out, caught him in the knee and locked her ankle over his, pulling him off balance, turning back around to face him.

“I’ll not let you treat me like this.” She growled back at him.

He lunged at her wrestling her to the flat fo her back once more, biting her neck, her shoulder and thrusting his hips into her sex, his cock hard and bruising. She panted into his shoulder, her fingers gripping and pulling his hair.

“You want me, I can tell. Spread your legs woman, I want to enter you.” He demanded.

When she didn’t comply he growled and kicked her legs apart, his hand gripping her inner thigh, wedging it open far enough for him to angle himself into her. He thrust up hard and ruthlessly. Sakura’s mouth opened in a strangled yelp and he covered it with his own, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as he thrust his cock up into her center.

“This is what I wanted, what I've been waiting for.” he panted over her body, moving faster.

“Can you feel it, deeper and deeper. Take me, all of me up inside of you. I’m going to come in you so deeply that you’ll feel it after all of me has already been expelled. Move with me Sakura, take me in deeper.” he pulled at her body, bruising her, demanding her to move with him.

Sakura bit her lip and rolled her hips up against him and he groaned, “Yes, like that, good girl.”

She smiled and did it again. Another groan. More boldly she began to move with him, matching each of his thrusts with one of her own, until a moan of pleasure so deep erupted from her throat and she bit down hard on his shoulder drawing blood from him like he had her.

“Fuck Sakura, deeper.” He demanded flipping her over and pulling her up against him, entering her from behind pulling on her arms, forcing her head into the covers of their bed.

Her whole body shook with his impact. A pain began to grow in her womb. She tried to move away from him, to ease the pain but her arms were bent back at an impossible angle. He was relentless, he didn’t stop, she cried out in pain, begging but it only seemed to make him go faster, harder.

Shukaku released her arms and pulled her by the waist, bending over her, biting her back as he came into her. She felt it throb and ache, the warm splattering against her bruised core soothing her insides, sending warm waves of chakra throughout her body, healing her. He collapsed beside her, pulling her down with him, beside him.

“If I hurt you, I’ll heal you.” He promised her and she nodded. He licked the side of her neck affectionately, his hands moving over her sweaty slick body caressing each bite, each bruise he had laid upon her, soothing the burn, dulling the aches.

“Mine.” He whispered to her. “Mine.” He muttered once more before falling asleep, his naked body pressed up against her naked back.

It was still the dark of night when she woke to the gentle rustling of bed sheets. He was moving over her body under the covers, his mouth on her nipple, his hand between her legs, his fingers thrusting gently up into her bruised body.

“I’ll be gentle this time.” Shukaku promised, moving and twisting his fingers inside of her.

He bit down very lightly on her breast over her nipple, her body rose up and arched pushing her breast more forcefully into his mouth as she groaned out her pleasure. 

“I will be gentle.” He told her again as he moved over top of her, lifting her leg, one up and over his shoulder as he rocked up agaisnt her sex with his newly reformed hardness.

“Come in me again.” She watched his eyes glow an ever brighter yellow at her bold words, his fingers spread the lips of her sex and he pressed the head of his cock into her gently rocking back then forward, easing it into her once again, gently, slowly in such contrast to their last joining. 

Her body bent to accommodate his size this time, drawing him in until there was no start, no beginning from his body to hers. “I love you.” He told her as she moved against him.

“Ungh.” She moaned into his mouth as he leaned over to kiss her.

Leaning back he watched her thrust up against his body, he watched his cock slid in and out of her tightness. Sakura lifted her other leg up and slid it over his shoulder pulling him back down over her, bending her body in half. “More.” She twisted her lower half into him, her nails running down his back.

“Careful what you ask for baby.” His chakra swirled around them, she could feel it pressing into her core pushing against her walls making her toss her head back and forth over the pillow, her hair sticking to her face with her perspiration.

“How are you…” She couldn’t talk as he shot more chakra up into her center, his thrusting became more intense, more focused and she screamed out as he rocked into her so deep she felt the pain of it shoot through her lower back as he bent her in half.

Sakura’s head swam, she blinked as little dots filled her field of vision, she could feel his release as it poured into her body encouraged by his intense release of chakra. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This did not turn out quite how I wished. It was written early this morning but I himed and hawed over it, changing it and can do no more. I was never one to nit and pick but this chapter left me wanting to do more and then not enough so, I left it as is.
> 
> It isn't my best, I apologize to myself as well as the reader, but I've left it as it is to move on. I was never one to waste my time and it won't get any better lol.


	42. Chapter 42

With a smirking satisfaction Shukaku laid down beside his mate while Gaara watched his wife with growing trepidation. ‘Was the tanuki better in bed than him’, he didn’t like how this was going. He didn’t like the look of satisfaction on the tanuki’s face or the look of contentment on his wife’s as she slept.

‘Switch back with me Shukaku. I want to sleep with my wife’, Gaara told the tanuki who nodded unperturbed by the boy’s apprehension.

‘You’ll get better at pleasing her. You forget I am in her head, I do not have to read her body language to know what she wants’, Shukaku was not unkind, he understood.

Gaara nodded and they switched places. He lay a hand over Sakura’s head and kissed her cheek, settled back down beside her and closed his eyes.

‘Ours’, he nodded again to Shukaku who had closed his own eyes to sleep for the night, his energy spent, his lust sated and satisfied.

Sasori watched with disinterest as Kisame sealed the broken three tails into their sealing scroll. One of his spies had come to him the night before informing him that Sakura’s movements had changed, she was at the Kazekage’s oasis. Fear that he had misjudged her, misjudged his nephew gripped him, had they already married...was he too late…

‘Never too late’, Sasori frowned at the sealing scroll that now contained the three tails. He didn’t care about the tailed beasts but he saw the advantage of having them close by. His interests however were more singular and as he ran back toward Rain with Kisame thoughts of Sakura dominated his mind. ‘She didn’t wait for me’, ‘She didn’t understand how I felt for her’, ‘She married my nephew’...without warning he split off from Kisame and headed West, to the desert ignoring Kisame’s calls of protest behind him.

Sakura stretched in the soft bed, her eyes still blissfully closed. Shukaku had sent wave after soothing wave of his chakra throughout her body after their joining but she still felt bruised, bitten and pleasured. It was so different than it had been with Gaara, even if it was the same body. Briefly, she wondered how personality could play such a large factor in the love making process and again, her mind betrayed her and she wondered, how Sasori would make her feel.

Pushing all thoughts of her former sensei from her head she pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked around the room. It was empty. With a quick finger combing of her hair she got out of bed and dressed, sending her chakra out around her...three signatures. Gaara and Shukaku’s signatures were there but the third...was familiar and yet…she grabbed her weapons pouch from the chair beside the bed and opened the front door to the cabin.

“Good morning Tsuma.” Gaara and Shukaku greeted her.

“Otto.” Sakura smiled at the redhead and the tanuki sitting side by side on the porch facing a man in a dark green cloak.

The man threw his hood back and grinned at her. “Hey there pinky un, remember me?” Deidara of Iwa grinned at her widely.

“Deidara!” Sakura looked at him in surprise. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“Oh well, uh, I’m a missing nin now. I left Iwa, things were getting way too intense around there, and not in a good way. They repeatedly tried to stifle my naturally creative nature un!” He bellowed.

“You left because they didn’t like your art?” She was baffled.

“Yeah un! No respect for my art! My art is the best in the world too yeah! It explodes! See!” Deidara stuck his hands in his pockets and moments later threw his hands in the air out toward the desert behind him. 

Shukaku yelled in anger, “Stupid Iwa asshole! Don’t go blowing up my desert!”

“It’s art! Yeah!” Deidara yelled and grinned at Sakura as explosion after rapid explosion erupted in the morning sky behind him. Blue, red and silver sparkled with the morning sun.

“Wow! That’s beautiful!” Sakura clapped her hands.

Deidara threw her the widest smile of gratitude she had ever seen and she blushed.

“So why are you here though, if you left Iwa, why come out to the desert?” She asked him.

“Oh, I came to warn you. War is coming. Before I left, my sensei, the Tsuchikage was amassing large ranks of Iwa nin, calling all of his shinobi back from the field and from missions. He plans on attacking Suna with or without the Raikage’s assistance, in the next month or so.” Deidara told them.

Gaara immediately stood up. “We need to get back to Suna.”

“Wait Gaara.” Sakura put her hand out to stop him, narrowing her eyes at Deidara.

“Why...why are you telling us this, even if you have left Iwa, even if it is for a good reason, why warn us?” She asked him, her hand on her belt over her pouch.

Deidara grinned at her, “As ruthless as ever and just as shrewd as the Tsuchikage complains yeah.” 

“You healed me once, you might remember.” He lifted his hands up into the air, palms out toward her and his mouths opened wagging their tongues at her.

“I wouldn’t be able to do my art to its fullest capacity, if it hadn’t been for you. My debt to you is repaid now un.” He winked at her.

“I never wanted to marry you by the way, no offense. I thought the Kazekage should know that too, now that you two are married. Also being a missing nin it wouldn’t hurt to have a few friends yeah? Telling the Kazekage about the Iwa plan puts me in a good position wouldn’t ya say pinky?” He winked at her again and she laughed.

“You are welcome at Suna...if you information proves to be correct. If you visit us, no explosives inside of my village.” Gaara said firmly.

“I don’t want him blowing up my desert either!” Shukaku growled.

“I’m not going back to Suna with you, I want to find a place of my own yeah, but I might drop in once in a while, just to say hi un.” Deidara pulled a little clay bird out of his pocket and tossed it into the air making a simple hand sign. The bird enlarged instantaneously and hoovered in the air at shoulder level.

“Wow!” Sakura mused.

Deidara hopped up onto the back of the bird. “I’ll see you guys later! Congrats!” 

All three watched as he flew away.

“That was unexpected.” Gaara crossed his arms across his chest, his head turned toward Suna.

“We should go, we need to be there if what he says is true.” Sakura turned to go back into the cabin to gather their things.

“I’ll go, you stay here with Shukaku.” Gaara followed her inside the cabin.

“No, don’t be silly Gaara, I’m coming too.” She started putting things into her bag.

“You stay here and gather Moon flowers with Shukaku, otherwise it is a wasted trip. I will go on ahead, you and Shukaku can follow tomorrow morning after you have harvested your flowers Sakura.” Gaara insisted. He had seen how excited she had been at the prospect of gathering near mythical flowers for her research when he had told her about them. He wasn’t going to let a difference of a few hours keep her from getting what she wanted.

“Well…” She hesitated.

“I know you want those flowers. I will leave now, Shukaku can talk to each of us, remember, we share his chakra. With your sensor abilities you will know when I get to Suna, and Shukaku can relay any needed messages between us.” He assured her.

“Okay but as soon as we are done collecting the flowers, we are coming home okay?” She told him.

“Of course. I don’t want to be away from you for long either.” Gaara kissed her quickly, grabbing his small bag from the chair beside the night stand and throwing it over his shoulder.

“I’ll see you soon Sakura, be safe.” Gaara disappeared in a whirl of sand and was gone.

Sakura sighed. Yang Shukaku disappeared with a little pop and Yin Shukaku appeared at her feet rubbing his head up against her ankle. Bending over she scooped him up into her arms and kissed his head.

“I’m hungry Shukaku, what do you say to some breakfast, we have to wait until nightfall to collect the Moon flowers anyway right?” She asked him and he nodded.

Sasori checked the seals on his cave one last time before turning his head toward Suna. Should he go to Suna first and kill his nephew, or get the girl. His head turned northwest toward the Oasis. He couldn’t believe the fool had left her alone. ‘The Oasis’, he thought to himself, get the girl first, then he would deal with his Nephew.

Shukaku sat on the porch of the cabin as Sakura swam around in the Oasis. Shukaku kept the spring filled and deep. Even from his prison inside of his hosts he had continued to keep the spring filled and the surrounding trees lush. It was his place, his home. Only once had he truly thought of abandoning it, only once had he almost let the spring run dry. It had been during the time before Gaara, with his last host.

The Moon flowers were not just part of myths and legends because they were nearly unattainable and only bloomed at night during the rising of the moon, their powers were those beyond healing. Beyond anything anyone had ever known. They were botanical, they held no traces of chakra and yet, they held a power, a very dangerous power. Shukaku protected it, he kept it safe.

So when his last Jinchiriki had found out about the secret properties of the flower, he had almost let the oasis dry out, to protect it’s secret. It was the second and third shinobi war that was his saving grace. With the war as a distraction, his host forgot about the Moon flower and Shukaku’s secret died with his host and Shukaku’s Oasis remained safe.

Even though Rasa had come to the Oasis many times and had seen the Moon flowers, he had never known what they were, had never picked one and had never told his brother Sasori about them. It had always been one of Shukaku’s greatest fears, that the Poison Master would somehow find out about the Moon flower, harvest it and make it into the life and soul sucking weapon that it could be, instead of the last saving grace it had been created for by the moon goddess.

Sakura was not like Sasori. Though she shared many interests with the man she wasn’t a monster. She wouldn’t use it against the tailed beasts. He had seen into her heart, he knew she wouldn’t use it for the evil that man would, that she wouldn’t abuse it, that he could trust her.

Shukaku had explained in detail the medicinal attributes of the flower to his wife, the preparations that were needed, how to harvest, store and apply the flower for maximum withdrawal. She was clever, and asked him question after question, wanting to know not only the origins of the flower but the basis for its existence.

He was flattered by her interest and pleased, he felt comfortable explaining it’s history to her. She had been fascinated, enthralled and he knew he had made the right choice in trusting her. While Shukaku didn’t care personally for the humans as a whole, he did care about Sakura, and in turn he cared about her desires, wants and needs.

She cared about him, Gaara and their desert. He would give her every tool within his power to protect what was theirs. For the first time since he had been brought here, he felt a part of something, like he belonged...he belonged with her, with the boy, with Suna.

Sakura lay on her back floating in the water of the Oasis thinking about what Shukaku had told her. A moon flower tea that could pull the soul from one’s body. How interesting and dangerous. Her green eyes looked up at the sky, fathomless blue and white, and wondered how she could use this knowledge to help her village.

Her thoughts immediately went to puppetry however, and to evil uses...it was so much easier to think of evil than good. She thought of Sasori's shelves upon shelves of cylinders and what she thought they contained. He was a Master of his trade, the trade he had created, had taught her. She bit her bottom lip as she thought of the possibilities. What if...you could use the Moon flower to take the soul from a person, make their body into that of a puppet and then put the soul back...with a sealing jutsu…

‘Sakura’, Shukaku scolded her.

‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but think of it.’ She apologized.

‘I’m not disagreeing with you. I don’t care about humans’, he was amused at her embarrassment.

‘I thought you would think of the healing properties first, my mistake’, he was teasing her and she knew it and laughed.

‘I could use it the same way, only not turn them into a puppet, heal them then replace their soul, or remove their soul to prevent the emotional strain that crushes people, the weak, but isn’t that bad? We only want strong shinobi in Suna’, her thoughts flowed like the water she was submerged in.

‘I trust you to do what you think is best’, Shukaku said easily, resting his head on his paws.

Sasori slowed to a stop, he could sense...Shukaku at the Oasis with the girl? ‘How interesting’, Sasori rubbed his bottom lip with the back of his hand thinking. A pain was growing in the back of his head...did they, were they married already? ‘No’, she was too young. ‘Rasa married at the age of 14’, he reminded himself. That was different, it was a time of war, they needed an heir.

He had heard the rumors, knew Iwa grew impatient, and were recalling their shinobi back to the village. ‘Did Gaara know’, he wondered, is that why? Sasori looked off into the distance. He wasn’t that far from the Oasis...if she had bonded with the tanuki, it would be that much more difficult to take her...he would wait, until nightfall.

Reaching into his pack he pulled out a portable sealing cloak and covered himself in the sand to wait. She had never been able to sense him if he hadn’t wanted her, he would use this time wisely, he would need a plan to take her from under the watchful eye of the tanuki who was presumably linked with both her and the boy. ‘Clever girl’, he commended her while cursing her at the same time.

The desert sun beat down over her skin as she lay on the porch to dry after her swim, Shukaku beside her under the shade of the short awning. Sakura opened her eyes as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, something was happening, something was wrong. She sat up looking around but she saw nothing but sand, the Oasis and trees. She sent her chakra out around her to fall into the earth but she felt nothing.

‘What is it flower’, Shukaku asked her.

‘I feel a disturbance but can not place it, I have this feeling, a very bad feeling something is coming’, she frowned.

‘I sense no one, nothing harmful’, Shukaku lifted his head to sniff the air.

‘It is nothing flower, don’t worry’, he told her and put his head back down on the porch and closed his eyes.

The tanuki was wrong, she knew it. Something was coming she could feel it, it’s intent, she just didn’t know what or who it was.

Temari looked down at the scroll in her hand. Gaara needed to be informed at once. Their scouts had seen small bands of Iwa shinobi moving swiftly toward Suna over the northern part of their desert. They would be in Suna by nightfall. Suna needed their Kazekage and their most skilled nin back behind Suna walls, immediately. Temari walked to the window and whistled, holding her arm out over the sill.

“That will not be needed. I already know.” Gaara’s voice sounded behind her, startling her as her hawk landed on her arm.

“You know? About Iwa? I just found out from our scouts, how did you know?” She asked him.

“Deidara of Iwa told me, he has...left the Hidden Stone. He found Sakura and I at the Oasis and informed us of the Tsuchikage’s intentions.” Gaara moved to his desk taking out a sheet of paper.

“Why would he do that? Where is Sakura?” Temari asked.

“Sakura healed his hand when no one else could, he repaid her efforts. Sakura is still at the Oasis and will be back tomorrow morning at daybreak. I came ahead to address the information Deidara provided me.” Gaara started writing quickly.

“What is that? What are you doing?” She asked looking at the paper in front of him.

“We are going to war. With Iwa. I need to know if the Raikage is joining Iwa in this...failure or if he will continue his show of good will to us as he has been since my inauguration, and break his alliance with Iwa and stand behind us.” Gaara finished the letter and tied it to the hawk Temari had summoned.

He pulled another paper from his desk and started writing a different note.

“Who is that for?” Temari asked.

“Konoha.” Gaara didn’t need to explain that letter to her and she nodded.

“I will prepare our troops.” Temari bowed and left the Kazekage office to find Kankuro, war was coming, and they needed to be ready for it.

“We need to move more quickly!” The Iwa captain called to his men.

Three units of Iwa shinobi ran in one column across the hot desert sand.

“There is an Oasis up ahead, we will stop there to rest and drink before we move on to Suna. The second company will be on our heels, we must make room for them, don’t dawdle!” He called out again as they ran over top dune after dune.

Sakura felt them before she saw them. She dressed and pulled her puppet scroll from her pack before they had even sensed her. With one hand attached to Kayda with her chakra strings and the other one whirling sand up at her side she waited. Shukaku sat atop her shoulder watching, his yellow and black eyes narrowed against the sun.

They came in tens and twenties over the top of the last dune, their sweat glistening off their skin caught in the rays of the sun. A small smile of anticipation curved her delicate lips. She had wanted to test her new strength, had wanted to see how much faster, how much more deadly she had become with Shukaku’s power surging through her. What better way was there than to test it against a hoard of Iwa nin sent to destroy Suna…

Sasori had felt them coming and jumped to his feet. ‘Could she handle them, all of them’, he moved the last few miles it took to see for himself. Positioning himself over the rise he saw her pink hair first. He could have laughed in delight at the sight. One pink haired girl standing, waiting patiently for an army of Iwa nin to come to her...to be slaughtered.

Yes. Sasori would have laughed, if not for the little sand raccoon perched possessively on her shoulder looking out at the approaching army with his mate. ‘So, it’s true’, he clenched his fists at his side and ground his teeth.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” The Iwa commander demanded of Sakura when they had reached the Oasis. His army behind him at a small distance. He stood out in front...alone.

She was a woman, young and by herself...she posed no threat to him, with his army behind him. He scoffed at her disdain, the haughty look in her eye, her hand on her hip as she sneered at him.

“This is my Oasis. What are you doing here?” She demanded of the commander, making his troops laugh riotously behind him.

“Little girl…” He began but was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder and a whisper in his ear. The man’s eyes grew wide and round, his mouth dropped open most comically and his head jerked as he took in her pink hair, her puppet at her side and the sand raccoon on her shoulder.

“You’re…” He swallowed.

“That’s right. I’m Sabaku no Sakura, or Sakura of the Red Moon, if you prefer, though I never did like that name. It Isn't important though...because you’re all about to die.” She smiled sweetly before leaping into the air, Shukaku roaring out his battle cry.

The entire battle had been clear to him from his vantage point on top of the dune. She was even more magnificent than he had remembered her. She flew through the air with a graceful beauty of misleading cunning that left the target both speechless and lifeless. Her quick eyes and mind decimated the command of the army before her. 

Sakura took out the commander first, poor sap, then swiftly flew through their ranks until only the Genin remained. One by one, step by step she slaughtered them. The sweet smile never left her face but as she rose from the body of her last kill, tightened her Suna headband over her forehead, and walked past the broken body of the commander...she fell to the desert sand with a scream.

He didn’t know what had happened. He hadn’t seen the commander move at all, he had only seen her fall and not get back up. He ran, down the dune to her side lifting her body up and moving it into the cabin, onto the bed.

‘Where was the tanuki’, he wondered for surely the thing would be by her side glaring at him at this moment if not barking obscenities at him. Shukaku was nowhere in sight, and as loathe as he was to admit it, that bothered him greatly.

“Sakura.” Sasori bent over the girl pulling her eyelids open and checking her pupils.

“Sasori?” Her voice was weak.

“I need to know what happened. I saw you fall. What happened so I can fix you?” He asked her urgently.

“Chakra seal.” She whispered, her hand fell limp in his and he looked down over her body, looking for the seal.

He found it on her ankle. A Stone of Sealing seal for high level nin. It drained them of their chakra to the point of death. She was still breathing. That’s why Shukaku wasn’t with her, she no longer had the chakra to maintain his material state. The seal had taken the one tail’s chakra as well.

Shukaku glared at the Puppet Master from the walls inside Sakura’s head. The man was touching their mate! He was touching her and talking to her, he was too close to her! Shukaku growled. 

‘Sakura!’ Shukaku screamed at his wife. 

‘Wake up and use your Yin seal, we must leave, we must fight him!’ Shukaku was yelling and yelling but Sakura didn’t wake, she didn’t respond.

‘I can’t take control of your body love, I don’t have enough chakra left’, Shukaku was almost in tears. He could see his perfect world slipping away before his eyes. He didn’t trust the Puppet Master.

Sasori pulled one of the tailed beast sealing scrolls from his pouch. Shukaku watched on in horror helpless to stop what he knew was to come. 

‘Sakura!’, Shukaku was pleading with her.

‘Baby please wake up’, He cried as Sasori pulled him from her body and sealed him away into the scroll.

“Clever girl.” Sasori mused as he sealed Shukaku’s Yin chakra into the scroll and slipped it back into his pouch. “Only sealed half of the beast’s chakra into yourself. I assume Gaara has the other half...and the Yin chakra...how, fitting.” He lifted her up into his arms and carried her to the front door of the small cabin.

“There is much we need to say to one another, but first…” He released all of his chakra that he had been suppressing and let it fall around him, let it leak into the wood floor, the futon, the sand around them. “...let’s not let little Gaara wonder what happened to you. I want him to know, I’ll be coming for him soon, now, let’s get you home, where you belong.” He ran out the door leaving it open behind him, out into the desert East, toward Konoha.


	43. Chapter 43

‘No...NO!’ Shukaku exploded inside his head, making Gaara clutch at his hair , staggering backward into the walls of shelves that lined his office. Books and papers fell to the ground around him.

‘What? What is it, Shukaku is it Sakura? Has something happened?’ Gaara asked the tanuki who was howling uncontrollably.

‘He took her! He took her! She’s gone! Gone!’ Shukaku howled.

‘Who!’ Gaara demanded, a cold grue spreading over his spine and into his soul.

‘Sasori, he sealed my Yin chakra, she’s gone now! We’re alone again!’ Shukaku wailed and rolled in upon himself.

Gaara fell to his knees, hands still clutching his head. ‘Shukaku’, Gaara’s voice was strong and firm.

‘We will get her back’, Gaara rose from the ground, his sand moving around him he disappeared, then reappeared in their bedroom at the manse.

Moving swiftly across the room while trying to calm the tanuki so he could think, he pulled open drawer after drawer of their dresser until he found what he had been looking for. The scroll Sasori had given Sakura before he had left Suna. 

Gaara had never pressured her to tell him what it was, satisfied it was something she would tell him in time. When she had come home that one day and had thrown the scroll into the drawer of their dresser and hadn’t taken it out since, he’d let it go, considering it closed.

She had told him it was an heirloom, Sasori owned nothing he would consider an heirloom. Gaara knew the only things he felt were important enough to pass on, were the things he himself created. She had filled her workroom, Sasori’s old home, with things she had taken from his safe house. 

Gaara wasn’t a nosy man, but he was an observant one. Whenever she left to visit one of his workrooms...she always, always had taken that scroll with her. This was a clue to finding that damn man, Gaara knew it, and when he found Sasori, he would find Sakura.

First, he needed to take care of Iwa.

“Kazekage Sama!” A masked Anbu fell to his knees before the Kazekage as he entered his office.

“Yes?” Gaara moved to sit behind his desk.

“Lady Temari asked me to tell you all the troops are ready and waiting on the aerial ridges around the village gates sir.” The Anbu told him.

“Thank you. Bring me my brother, Lord Kankuro.” Gaara waved the Anbu away.

Kankuro pushed the doors to the Kazekage office open moments later, “Sorry to cut your honeymoon short little bro but….” Kankuro’s words froze in his mouth and fell away as he looked at his little brother’s face.

“What happened?” He swallowed hard knowing he didn’t really want to know.

“Shukaku was split, don’t ask why, but Sakura had half of him in her and I have the other half. I left Shukaku at the Oasis with Sakura, there was something she needed to do. She was to join us tomorrow at dawn. I thought we had more time...or I never would have let her stay there alone. I never should have…” Gaara stood up from his desk.

“Uncle has taken Sakura and sealed away half of Shukaku’s chakra in a beast scroll. I need to get her back. I want this petty war over quickly. Take all of your puppets, go to the front lines with Temari, tell her, end it quickly, make it bloody. I want them to pay for this pointless interference. I have already sent word to Konoha. I expect them to be here shortly.” Gaara hissed.

“Of course brother, and you?” Kankuro was almost too frightened to ask.

“I am going to teleport in intervals to the Oasis. If I run into the Iwa army on the way...so be it, if not, I want to look for any clues as to where he has taken her. The longer I wait, the farther he will take her from me. I need to move now and fast, go, stay in contact through hawks. I will be back at the front lines as soon as I check the cabin. I will meet you there.” Gaara disappeared in a stream of sand that flew out the window of his office.

“Shit.” Kankuro took a deep breath and leapt out of the Kazekage’s office window after his brother , running fast to the front gates.

Temari stood tall on the third tier up from the bottom of the ridge that surrounded Suna. Her fan strapped to her back, her hair tied up in her signature four ponytails. Kankuro dropped down beside her and replayed their brother’s message.

“Don’t worry Kankuro. If Gaara meets the army before they get here...we won’t even have to lift a finger, they’ll never make it past him alive. If he doesn’t meet them, we’re prepared. Killing is our occupation after all.” She smirked, her hand waved out before her in a wide arc encompassing their army of one hundred thousand Sand shinobi.

“I’m not worried about Iwa sis. I’m worried about Sakura...who is with our Uncle. I worry what he is capable of doing to her before Gaara can find her. If he loses her sis, if Uncle kills her...or worse...this war won’t matter for shit...Shukaku will kill us all.” Kankuro said honestly.

Temari looked out over the desert and nodded once, then turned to her brother, “Then we had better hope Gaara finds her, and fast.”

Minato stood quickly from his seat and rapped his fist on his desk, the scroll from Suna rolling off his desk and to the floor. Three Anbu leapt through the window.

“Yes Hokage Sama?” The captain asked.

“Get me all the jounin captains, immediately...and my son Naruto.” Minato ordered.

“Yes Hokage Sama!” They leapt out the window to do his bidding.

The Raikage watched his summons race out and away from his village heading for Suna per the Kazekage’s request.

“It looks like I was right about the runt.” The Raikage ‘A’, turned to his advisors who nodded behind him. “There is no need for us to enter this war. I have assured the Kazekage we have no intentions of backing Iwa in their petty fight and look forward to our peace talks once this whole situation is over.”

Gaara’s sand brought him within the boundaries of the Oasis where he paused over a splattering of blood. He looked around and saw a familiar sight. So, Sakura had been here when the Iwa had come running through...he walked around the corpses checking for any live chakra signatures.

It was faint, but there was one...only one. Gaara stepped over several more bodies to stand a few feet away from what appeared to be the commander of the army, laying face down in the sand, Sakura’s signature criss cross wound across his chest. The man must have really pissed her off Gaara mused, she rarely did that anymore, preferring to kill quickly, than to play with her victims anymore.

“I know you’re still alive. I will be merciful, this once and give you a quick clean death if you answer me honestly.” Gaara’s deep voice moved like silk over the bloodied sand.

“She was just a girl.” The ragged wispy voice of the commander was heard above the wind of the desert.

“She is my wife.” Gaara hissed.

“Who took her?” Though he need not ask. He could feel his Uncle’s chakra rolling around the sand and the cabin at his back, a clear message...for him.

“Akasuna no Sasori. He came after I sealed her chakra away.” A cough, ripped from the dying man’s throat.

“Sealed her...you bastard.” Gaara understood now. He knew this army was no match for his wife.

“I was going to leave Iwa alone, let you people suffer in the knowledge of your loss, but now...knowing you did that, that you are the reason for her...now, I will bury Iwa under the massive weight of my sand. I will kill every last man, woman and child...erasing you from history. Starting with you.” Gaara’s sand slowly encased the bleeding body of the former commander of the Iwa army.

Gaara moved away a few paces, back toward Suna, raised his hand above his head, “Sand coffin.” ...and squeezed his hand shut tight. His sand carried him away and back to his village before the man’s blood had even hit the ground.

Gaara’s sand moved him swiftly over the desert back toward Suna. His thoughts moved just as swiftly through his mind. She had been drained by Iwa’s signature chakra sealing jutsu, if she hadn’t had Shukaku’s chakra in her...she would be dead now. If she hadn’t been so weak, so incapacitated from the seal, she would have had a fighting chance against Sasori. Shukaku screamed and thrashed inside his head but Gaara ignored him. He had to concentrate.

Sasori had been collecting the tailed beasts for the Akatsuki if the rumors were correct. Shukaku knew that Sasori had sealed his other half into a beast scroll. Deidara had told them that the army would be moving in the next month, but they hadn’t, they had come today. Had the Tsuchikage known Deidara would betray them and changed their plans knowing he would warn Suna? Gaara had no way of confirming that but it seemed Deidara had been telling the truth.

As he neared the front gates of Suna Gaara felt the revoltingly familiar chakra signature of his Uncle’s two miles outside of the village. He turned and followed the signature to a cave. He could smell the blood...Sakura’s blood. Shukaku was sniffing the air like mad, demanding to be let out so he could rip Sasori apart himself.

‘He isn’t here, surely you must know that’, Gaara tried for a sense of calm. He couldn’t let his anger get the best of him right now, he had to focus, so he could get her back.

This was one of his Uncle’s safe houses, it must be, and if Gaara was here, standing in front of the entrance, he knew he was gone and he would never be coming back. His Uncle never left things undone, never left loose strings. He would not have allowed Gaara to see this, to follow him here if he were there or planned on ever using the cave again. Still, Gaara tried to push the door open. It didn’t move. He hadn’t expected it to.

Minato grabbed onto the last tree branch at the edge of the Konoha forest, swung down to the ground and stood looking out to the desert in front of him. ‘I’m coming, Sakura’, he promised. He only hoped he would make it in time to help his daughter.

Gaara’s letter had been brief. 

_Sakura and I have been married. Iwa is waging war on Suna for her denial of their constant marriage proposals, they advance even as I write this. My Uncle has stolen my wife, your daughter. Come aide Suna as outlined and required in our alliance. I am going to find my wife, I have what I believe is a map or documentation sighting all of my Uncle’s known safe places. I plan on going to each one, unsealing them one by one until I find Sakura. My sister, the Commanding General of the Suna army awaits you at the front gates of Suna._

_Sabaku no Gaara_  
Kazekage

The Hokage could feel his Konoha shinobi moving quickly through the trees, they would catch up to him soon. They knew what to do. He flashed ahead, he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible and hoped Naruto had reached Gaara in time to assist him, but as he flashed across the expanse into the final stretch of the desert before Suna, he felt Gaara’s chakra signature and switched directions.

Sand bullet after sand bullet ricocheted off the door to the cave. Still, it wouldn’t budge. Gaara was not as good at fuinjutsu as Sakura. Nothing he had tried on the door had worked. His Uncle, like his wife, was a Master…

Minato materialized beside Gaara. “Here, let me try Kazekage.” 

Minato made several complicated hands signs and pressed them into the door. With a burst of chakra, the door flew back, falling with a loud crack into the room beyond.

“One of my wife’s old seals. Your Uncle knows more about seals than any non-Uzumaki I have ever known.” Minato commented, as they walked into the cave slowly, weapons at the ready.

“They aren’t here.” Gaara lowered his sand and looked around. He couldn’t feel either of their signatures.

“Hey dad!” Naruto’s voice rang out loudly in the small cave rooms.

“My son knows all of the family seals as well as how to break them. Let him go with you, to find his sister and...your wife.” Minato held his hand out to Gaara.

“You’re not upset? That I didn’t ask your permission to marry Sakura?” Gaara asked, truly curious. It didn’t matter, they were already married.

“If she didn’t feel it was necessary, and I assume she didn’t, then no, I’m not mad. After we find her and bring her back safe...I do hope to be a bigger part of her life though, and any family you might have.” Minato rubbed the back of his head grinning.

“The decision is Sakura’s, but I would like that.” Gaara took Minato’s hand and shook it.

Naruto watched with narrowed blue eyes, the Kazekage, his brother in law, shake hands with his father the Hokage. Two kage’s in the family huh...his father and the other married to ...his sister. Naruto’s eyes narrowed further at the red head.

Gaara turned his head to look at the younger blonde. Cocked his head to the side, “You look just like your sister when you look at me like that. You’re pissed off at me aren’t you?”

Minato laughed out loud and the tension was broken. “This is awkward.” He muttered.

“It doesn’t have to be. Naruto, I would like you to accompany me to find your sister, your seal breaking skills will determine if this mission is a success or a failure. Will you help me, please?” Gaara inclined his head to the younger blonde who looked at him over a few times before answering.

“Yeah sure, alright, but you own me dinner at Ichiraku ramen when we’re done and you can name your first son after me!” Naruto points his thumb at his chest, “Naruto!”

“You can tell that to Sakura when we find her.” Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the two blondes.

“Was that a joke? I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” Naruto’s face scrunched up confused and Gaara’s mouth twitched, he knew he was going to like the blonde.

“I’ll be going then, I’ll meet up with your sister. Don’t worry about Iwa. Just find my daughter.” Minato walked out of the cave and disappeared.

Gaara turned to Naruto. “I want to check the cave before we leave for the next one.”

They had been there and recently he could tell. Both of their chakra signatures were mixed together. ‘Was she unconscious’, he wondered.

“Whoa, look at this.” Naruto called him over to the work table.

**I’m worth more. I deserve more. I wish you well with her.**

Gaara recognized his wife’s handwriting, as well as the handwriting below it.

_She married you out of frustration brought on by misguided emotions nephew. She was never supposed to be yours. She was always meant to be mine. I've taken back what was mine, come get me if you can._

Sasori hadn’t written his words in blood, but to Gaara he might as well have. Gaara had already known all of this before he had married Sakura. He knew she had been in love with his Uncle but he hadn’t known to what extent. If her words in blood on the table were an indication…

“Taken back what’s mine? What the hell does that mean, this guy your Uncle, wasn’t he her , I don’t know, teacher or something?” Naruto asked him.

“Yes.” Was all Gaara would say about that at the moment.

“We need to keep moving, let’s check the rooms to make sure we haven’t missed anything else.” Gaara moved away from the words on the table, his head hurt. Shukaku was throwing himself against the walls of Gaara’s mind.

“There’s nothing else here.” Gaara pulled the scroll from his pouch and set it on the work table in the middle of the room.

“Can you break this seal Naruto?” Gaara pointed to the scroll.

“Hum.” Naruto picked the scroll up, turning it over in his hand. “It looks like a blood seal. An Uzumaki blood seal, did Sakura do this or your Uncle?” Naruto looked back at the blood writing on the table.

“I don’t know.” He said slowly, looking from the blood on the table to the scroll.

Gaara’s eyes flashed with understanding. He pulled his canteen from his waist and poured a few drops onto Sakura’s blood and pressed it into the seal on the scroll. The scrolls seal clicked and unlocked itself.

“Bingo!” Naruto grinned at Gaara who smiled back at him.

Gaara waved a small cloud of sand over the table removing the dried flakes of blood, poured almost all of the water out of his canteen but for an inch or so and filtered the blood flakes into his canteen.

“Now we can read the map and use that transportation seal in the corner I bet!” Naruto pointed to the corner of the room.

Gaara had seen the seals in the corner but he didn't know what they were. “Transportation seals?” He asked Naruto, looking at the map. 

“You’re kidding.” he mumbled. “It would be just like him to do something like that.”

‘He wouldn’t make it this easy’, Gaara warned himself. His Uncle thought of everything. Would know that Gaara would find this place, would expect him to figure out the blood eventually, would know Gaara would find the scroll...he knew Sakura was related to the Uzumaki...that he would enlist help from Konoha...so why…

“To make us waste time.” Gaara said out loud.

“Huh?” Naruto turned to the redhead confused.

“It’s a long and fruitless trail. He isn’t at any of those locations on that map, he knew I would find this place, that map,her blood, and would eventually come to the conclusion I did. He also knows I know you are her brother and that Minato the Hokage is her father. I would ask him for help, just like I did, and he knew I would.” Gaara explained.

“So then…” Naruto wasn’t sure what to do next.

“Let’s go back to Suna, meet up with your father and see how Iwa’s foolish attempt at war is going. We will need a different plan, this one won’t work.” Gaara walked from the room, his sand swirling around Naruto and himself, teleporting them back to the gates of Suna...into chaos.


	44. Chapter 44

‘Shukaku’, Sakura called out to her mate but there was no answer.

‘Gaara’, she tried knowing full well he couldn’t hear her.

She tried to concentrate, to go to the field in her mind, Shukaku’s field but nothing came. There was only dark, only black. 

Her head ached. She tried to move her hand to ease the pain and realized she couldn’t. Her hands were tied behind her back. Her eyes flew open as the reality of her situation came crashing down around her like cold water after the release of a particularly difficult genjutsu. Everything remained black, that’s when she felt it, she had been blindfolded.

“Sasori.” His name slipped from her lips like oil over water.

“Yes dear. It’s me.” His familiar drawl slid around the room to land in her ears like a thorn in either side of her head. She groaned.

His signature was undetectable, she hadn’t even known he was there, right beside her. She felt him now. His body heat, the movement of his clothes when he breathed as the fabric shifted over his chest. He was close, too close. Sakura swallowed hard.

“It seems you’ve been very busy while I’ve been gone dear. Ransacking the store of herbs and equipment from my Suna safe house, remodeling my childhood home to make a workroom of your own and marrying my nephew.” His last words fell over her shoulders like ice.

Sakura tried to unobtrusively tug at the ties around her wrists but Sasori tsked at her annoyed. “Really dear, have you been away from me so long as to forget who I am?” He mocked her.

“Those are chakra restricting ropes of course and since I tied them myself, you won’t be getting out of them...until I untie them for you.” His voice was hot over her ear. He had leaned closer to her while he spoke.

‘Shukaku’, she called out to the tanuki but he didn’t answer.

“What have you done to Shukaku?” Sakura asked Sasori with much more authority than she felt but to cringe in the presence of the scorpion was to insight instant death. For if the man lost respect for you, or found you wanting, he would simply kill you and move onto something of more interest to him. 

Gaara would be looking for her. Someone will have seen the dead Iwa nin. He would know Shukaku was gone and that something had happened. She needed to stall for time, she needed to give him as much time as she could to let Gaara find her. He would come, she knew it.

“Yes, the one tail. Such a clever girl. It was your idea to split the Yin and Yang chakra wasn’t it my dear?” He asked her sitting down beside her.

Her body moved with his weight. ‘She was on a futon, a couch?’, she wondered. If there was a dresser or a nightstand nearby with sharp corners maybe…

“Stop plotting your escape in that head of yours girl. Even blindfolded I can see your thoughts rolling around.” He smirked at the tightening of her lips.

“You never did learn to hide your emotions well.” He criticized her.

Sakura refused to be goaded into a response. She knew what he wanted. He wanted her to rage at him, to be angry, to get upset, to react but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a reaction, so she remained silent.

“I was surprised to hear of your engagement my dear.” 

Sasori ran his finger down the side of her cheek, felt her shiver at his touch and smiled.

“Was two more years too long to wait?” His voice came from her left, then her right.

“Wait?” She asked hesitantly, surely he didn’t mean…

“I told you to wait for me Sakura.” He let the slightest bit of emotion into his tone. 

He didn’t trust himself yet, to look into her eyes and still maintain control of himself. He had taunted her about her thoughts, about her emotions, but he wasn’t any better...when it came to her.

“You also said you would explain your letter but there was nothing else, you didn’t explain anything.” She couldn’t keep the anger from her voice.

This was too much. He had left her, tried to separate her from her best friend, told her to wait for him, didn’t explain a damn fucking thing and he had the utter fucking gall to be mad at her?

“Which letter?” He asked her quietly.

She was livid. ‘Which letter’...”I know you were there. I know you read my letter. I can explain.” She threw his words back at him with a snarl, shaking her head viciously trying to displace the damn blindfold.

“Yes, the misunderstanding. That’s what happens when you read things you shouldn’t.” His voice was calm, uninterested, controlled and hurtful.

Her cheeks flushed with humiliation and anger. He was mocking her. He had hurt her, he knew he had hurt her and was mocking her.

“I hate you.” She whispered.

Tears started falling from her eyes, soaking into the fabric of her blindfold, soon, there would be too many and they would fall from the fabric and he would know...he would see how much he had hurt her and she couldn’t stand the thought of his gloating at her pain.

“I Hate You Sasori!” She screamed, grinding her teeth as more tears poured from her eyes.

“Pity.” He drawled.

“...because I love you.” He whispered.

She couldn’t breathe, so she choked. ‘Kai’, she said in her head over and over trying desperately to make the hand signs to break the obvious genjutsu she was under.

‘Release’, she said over and over, her wrists pulling at their bindings in vain.

Sasori watched her hand moving behind her back, watched her struggle with the impact of his words with sympathy and triumph. If she thought this was an illusion, it meant she still cared for him as much as he had hoped.

“Sakura.” 

She ceased moving, her breath coming up short. She couldn’t seem to get enough air into her lungs. There was a pain in her chest that wouldn’t go away.

“Sakura.” Sasori said her name again, softer this time.

“No.” She cried. ‘This wasn’t...how could he…’, she couldn’t believe this, not now...not now.

“The letter you read. I wrote that letter to you.” 

She gasped and clenched her fists behind her back. ‘No.’

“When I told you I have only ever loved one person. I meant I had only ever loved you.” His voice was quiet...as if he were afraid to speak above a whisper.

‘Impossible’, She told herself. It was impossible. She started shaking her head back and forth. ‘Stop talking...stop talking’, she pleaded with him silently.

“That day you and Gaara foolishly followed me to Rain, and surprised me with Konan. She was there to recruit me into the Akatsuki. I had never met her before that day. She would have used force. I asked her for three years, for you, to train you, so that I knew you would be taken care of while I was gone. I left to protect you, but Rasa...well, the plan was altered and I had to leave a little sooner than I had liked.”

His voice was a little louder now, she could hear the undercurrent of anger growing slowly the more he spoke.

“When I told you, you were too young...Sakura, I meant you were too young for me to...marry at the time, to take you with me when I left Suna.”

He was almost growling now.

“I was going to come back for you. I told you, on your eighteenth birthday. I told you to wait for me.”

He growled, his anger clear.

This was too much...how dare her. ‘How dare he!’, she screamed in her head.

“Wait for you.” She raised her head. Blindfolded she may be but she was not a coward.

“Wait for you? When I had no idea what I was waiting for? When you never told me how you felt until now! When it is too late!” She was angry, so angry but she didn’t know who she was more angry with...herself, or him.

Sasori didn’t speak. He offered her no response of any kind. He simply rose from his seat beside her. She could hear him walking around the, what she assumed to be a room, moving things.

“Where are we?” She asked.

He didn’t answer. He sighed.

“Are we still in The Land of Fire?” She asked.

“Yes.” He answered her.

She could hear a grinding of some kind, a shifting of furniture, a door opening and closing, then the smell of sulfur. Sakura turned her head to what she now knew was the bathroom. They were in the mountain safe house, the one in the volcano, near Konoha.

“I’ve removed this house from the map. No doubt Gaara has found your scroll and figured out how to use it. You are so careless dear when you are angry. Leaving me that message in your blood on the table of my workroom.” Sasori tsked at her in annoyance.

“Removed it?” She felt stupid asking, but her brain was too addled for her to focus...so she asked rather than figuring it out herself.

“He can’t find this place now, no one can. No seal exists connecting this place to any other seal now.” He gave her the clarification she requested with satisfaction.

“You never answered me. What have you done to Shukaku?” She asked him, ignoring his smugness.

“I pulled him from you and sealed him into a tailed beast sealing scroll. I couldn’t have you sending messages back and forth to Gaara could I?” Sasori said smoothly, it was a rhetorical question, she knew.

Sakura felt the weight of his body beside her on the couch, for she knew where she was now.

“Why am I here Sasori.” She asked him, her chin touching her chest. She was still blindfolded, there was no point in turning her head toward him, or trying to look him in the eye when she spoke...so she didn’t.

“I told you, many times...you belong to me. You’re mine, no one else's, not Rasa’s, not Gaara’s and certainly not that filthy tanuki’s bride.” His finger dug into her neck, just below the jaw, over her pressure point and she fainted.

Sasori looked down at the girl. She was filthy from her battle with the Iwa nin. Her hair was matted with blood. There was blood splattered across one side of her face, her shirt, her pants. He tsked at her, she had never been a clean killer like him.

“I suppose I should get you cleaned up.” He looked over at the open door of the bathroom, then back at the girl.

“First, I want to make sure no one will get in and interrupt us later.” Sasori left Sakura slumped over on the couch in their bedroom to add a few extra seals to each exit and entrance into the house.

He returned to find her sitting back up, her knees pulled up to her chest, trying to pull her arms under her legs to move them to the front, instead of the back of her body. Sasori rolled his eyes. She never gave up did she? If she did, he mused, he wouldn’t be half as interested in keeping her though.

“Again dear, did your time away from me make you forget who I am? Of course that’s not going to work, stop being ridiculous.” He scolded her.

Sakura jerked sideways and lost her balance, falling off the couch onto the floor. “Fucking hell.” She growled.

“That wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t acting like such an imbecile.” He pulled her up by the ties on her wrists making her gasp in pain.

“You deserved that.” He smirked at her even though she still couldn’t see him.

“Come. You’re filthy.” He put his arm around her waist and led her to the hot spring in the bathroom.

“Sasori.” She began.

“No more ‘Kun’, hum?” He ignored her, his fingers unbuttoning her shirt front from the side and down.

“Sasori Kun, please. I can bathe by myself.” She tried to pull away from him but he stopped her with a hand to the belt at her waist, pulling her back to him forcefully.

“...and yet you won’t...be by yourself dear.” He slid his palms up the inside of her shirt, opening the unbuttoned front wide and pushing it off over her shoulders, where it hung around her tied wrists.

“I forgot.” He pulled a kunai from his pouch and cut her shirt away from her hands, smirking at another tightening of her mouth.

“Sasori.” Sakura began again.

“If you don’t stop protesting, I will gag you and we are going into the hot spring, are you sure you want to be gagged while sitting in water dear?” His voice was playful, but his words were not.

She knew he would do it.

When she didn’t say anything else he smiled and stepped closer to her, whispering in her ear, “Good girl.”

‘Gaara, Gaara’, what was taking him so long, surely the rest of the Iwa army had arrived, surely it hadn’t taken him long to finish them off, he had his half of Shukaku after all, he would have called for aide from Konoha she was sure...what if the Raikage had joined Iwa. He wouldn’t be able to come for her for days, possibly weeks. She swallowed again. She had to find a way out of this, she had to escape on her own. What if no one was coming, she didn’t have time to sit back and wait, not with someone like Sasori.

A quick tugging at her pants brought her mind back to her surroundings. Sasori pulled the ties and her pants fell to the ground at her feet. She grit her teeth.

“Tell me dear, you are married now aren’t you, that’s why you were with Gaara at the Oasis , a little honey moon was it?” He asked her as he slid her underwear down her leg, lifted her right foot, then her left.

“It was only a year apart but I don’t remember you ever being this talkative Sasori. Did the Akatsuki not like you enough to let you join in on their conversations or are you just happy to see me?” She had never learned to keep her damn mouth shut.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at her, but a small part of him was proud. She was in a terribly compromising position, a dangerous position and still, she wasn’t backing down. With a flick of his finger he cut through her chest wraps and they fell around their feet on the floor.

“I’m happy to see you’ve matured in my absence, if only in your physical form.” His eyes moved over her body slowly as she stood naked before him.

“My my Sakura, you have grown into a very beautiful woman.” His breath was short and his fingers twitched.

Sakura shifted on her feet. She could feel the weight of his eyes moving over her body and she couldn’t even use her hands or arms to cover herself. She knew her cheeks were red, just as she knew there was nothing she could do about it.

Slowly Sasori reached out to her, his fingers closing gently around the crook of her arm leading her forward toward the water. “You remember the onsen do you not? The first step is right in front of you dear.”

Sakura stepped down into the hot water hesitantly, one step, then two. The edge of the next step was both wider and lower she knew and reached her toes out slowly feeling for it. ‘There’, she stepped down onto the last step and slowly sat down into the water. A small mewl of pleasure escaped her lips before she could prevent it and she heard a soft chuckle from behind.

‘Thank kami’, she said to herself, Sasori wasn’t going to join her in the onsen.

His soft footsteps could be heard leaving the bathroom, moving out into the bedroom and beyond and she relaxed into the water grateful for his absence. He hadn’t removed the blindfold and part of her was grateful for that as well. Knowing Sasori was looking at you with those piercing amber eyes was one thing, seeing him look at your naked body...was another.

Since her hands were still tied she couldn’t wash herself. Since she was still blindfolded, she couldn’t look around to find soap even if she could wash herself. So instead she just leaned back against the wall, relieving the pressure of her bound wrists and enjoyed the warmth of the water on her skin and the steam that filled her lungs.

In the kitchen, Sasori moved from counter to counter making a small plate of rice balls. He took his time molding the rice into perfect little balls around the beef paste, adding a pickled radish on top of each ball he wrapped them in a strip of seaweed, placing them in neat little rows on the plate. She would be hungry. He had taken her around midday and he didn’t think she had time to eat before killing all of those pathetic Iwa nin.

He wasn’t a fool. He knew she had married Gaara and that he had probably already bedded her. However, he wasn’t going to give up that easily. She loved him, he knew it. This was as much his fault as it was hers. If he had only communicated his feelings to her better...he shook his head. There was nothing he could do about the past. He patted the last rice ball into place and set the tray in the refrigerator.

As much as he loved her fighting spirit, he didn’t want her fighting him on this. He wanted her to enjoy his touch, he had never been good with words, clearly, so he wanted to be able to show her how much he loved her, had loved her over the years...now that she was older and could understand. 

He knew she loved Gaara, but she had loved him first, he was sure of it. He just needed to remind her why she had loved him first, why he was the better choice. Sasori sighed. There was no choice. She belonged to him whether she liked it or not, but it would be better for her and easier for him if she came to him of her own free will. He would only resort to breaking her...if he must.

“I want this over quickly.” Gaara told his siblings who nodded their understanding.

“Hokage, if it is agreeable, I will start with an area of effect Sand Hail, an aerial attack to distract the enemy, while you use your Flying Thunder god.” Gaara waited for Minato to respond.

“Yes, that is a sound plan.” Minato pulled a storage scroll from his pouch and infused it with chakra. 

“Tell your men to throw as many of these as they can in both long and short distances. I’ll take care of the rest.” Minato said.

“Kankuro relay the Hokage’s request to our ranks.” Gaara told his older brother who jumped down to the lower tiers of Suna’s great wall with two more scrolls Minato gave him.

“I’ll take care of these for you Hokage Sama.” Temari smiled at the blonde who smiled back at her.

“They come.” Gaara jumped down to the first tier of the wall.


	45. Chapter 45

Sakura bit her bottom lip between her teeth. She had heard him return, but he had made no move to come into the bathroom with her yet. With practiced care she calmed her breathing, he was watching her, she knew. Then she heard it, a rustling of clothing, the soft thump of a pouch being set on a dresser, then footsteps, slow, deliberate came into the bathroom.

The water moved around her, but there was nowhere to go, she felt his leg brush against hers as he sat down on the volcanic rock ledge beside her.

“Sakura.” Sasori said her name and she sucked in a quick gasping breath.

“Please Sasori, don’t. Please.” She didn’t even know what she was asking him not to do. 

Her emotions were scattered. While he had been gone, she had been thinking of course. Thinking of a way to escape, thinking of what Gaara must be going through, Shukaku...and thinking of how much she had missed him, the bastard of a naked man beside her.

“Sakura.” The water moved and whirled over her skin as he moved closer to her.

“Sasori.” She choked against her will, her voice cracking. Her emotions were no help, their constant contradiction scared her. All he had to do...was say her name and she could feel herself falling apart.

“I missed you dear.” Sasori couldn’t bring himself to take her blind fold off just yet. There were still things he needed to say to her and he still couldn’t bear to have her look at him while he said them.

‘He missed her’, Sasori didn’t say things like that lightly, in fact she couldn’t remember him ever saying anything like that to her before.

“I…missed...” She stopped herself, no...”I’m married, Sasori, to Gaara, this is...inappropriate.” 

She waited for his retribution...but no retribution came.

“Married, yes, to my Nephew.” He hummed as he ran his fingers over her bare shoulder, up her neck to the ties of the blindfold.

“Tell me dear, would you have married my Nephew if I hadn’t left, would you have even considered it an option if you knew the letter I had written...was for you?” He asked her, tugging gently at the ends of the blindfold, little by little releasing its bindings.

“If you had known why I was telling you to wait for me, would you have waited?” Sasori didn’t move, but his fingers still grasped the end of the blindfold as he waited for her answer.

“...but I didn’t know Sasori and I am married to Gaara.” She said quietly, her voice strained with emotion. ‘Why now, why…’.

“Humor me, dear.” His fingers dropped to her neck, his thumb over her pulse. He could feel her pulse jumping and skipping under his thumb, could feel the energy surging throughout her body.

He flicked the ends of the blindfold, releasing the rest of the binding and the cloth fell away from her eyes. Sakura blinked rapidly against the torchlight of the bathroom fighting back any tears she may have left. She didn’t want him to see her cry, not now, especially not now.

“Sakura.” Sasori’s voice was soft, gentle...and it drew her to him. She turned her head, swallowed and raised her eyes to meet his. 

The world stopped moving and she couldn’t breathe. They weren’t the same cool amber that looked past you or through you. They weren’t uncaring or indifferent. No, his gaze was intense, focused and piercing as it bore down on her. Sasori raised his hand again to trace the outline of her jaw with one finger.

Tipping her chin up to him, holding her gaze with that heated intensity, he asked her again. “Would you have waited if you had known that I loved you?”

‘Loved you…’, he loved her...her thoughts went back to the cylinder she had found, how she had felt when she held it. It was like she had been holding his heart in her hands and she had felt it, his love for her. That’s why his letter had hurt her so much, that’s why she had felt so betrayed and had...married Gaara.

“Yes.” The word of betrayal shot out of her mouth like her fist through an enemy's heart. ‘Gaara. I’m sorry’.

A blaze of triumph glowed in his eyes as he looked at her. A smile curved his lips as he pulled her up and over his lap to straddle him. Lust shot through her as their skin made contact and his mouth brushed her lips.

Sakura squirmed over top of him causing the water to churn and break against the walls of the spring. She wanted to run her fingers through his hair, to grip it in her fists but her hands were still tied behind her back with the chakra suppressing rope. Her head was pulled back by her hair making her back arch. She wanted to run...

“You are so beautiful Sakura.” 

Sasori slid his hand from her hair and ran one up and down her back, pulling and pushing her body, rocking up hard into her as he moved her on top of him. The other hand steadied her, locking her in place by the waist. She could feel his desire against her skin, hot even in the hot water...

“Did he take you, did my Nephew have you yet? Am I too late?” He pulled her body into a tight embrace, turning his head and pressing his cheek into her bosom breathing hard, as if he couldn’t bear to look at her anymore. Both of his arms wrapped around her, pressing them against one another.

Sakura had never seen him like this. His breath was quick, almost panting. His voice was emotional and strained when he spoke to her. His fingers dug into her flesh almost painfully, ...she didn’t want to answer him, so she nodded. He must have understood or felt her answer for his grip increased to bruising, his chest heaved with a sudden deep breath and he nodded.

“Do you still love me, I know you loved me once, but now after having been with my Nephew Sakura, those feelings, do you...do you still love me?”

They were so much alike, Sasori and Gaara. This wasn’t the first time she had noticed their similarities. It was both comforting and disturbing at the same time. His whole body seemed to thrum with desire, with a barely restrained tension, is this what love was...was this what she did to him?

“I never stopped loving you Sasori.” She hated herself, she hated the truth.

‘Gaara…’, could she not be with one and not think of the other? Could she not love one without feeling like she was betraying the other one.

“Sasori.” She hated herself.

His whole body trembled at her words. He nodded once as though satisfied, kissed her lightly on the mouth, then picked her up off of his lap and set her on the ledge of the onsen once more. Sasori didn’t speak as he picked up the bar of soap and a cloth he had set beside the spring. He soaped the cloth and moved it gently over her body, starting with her face, washing away the remnants of gore left over from her battle with Iwa.

Sakura sat still watching his eyes as his hand moved the soapy cloth gently over her cheek. She closed her eyes as the cloth passed over her forehead, the ends tickling her nose.

“I thought of you everyday that I was gone.” His lips barely moved as he spoke and she closed her eyes.

“I should have taken you with me.” He whispered leaning his forehead against her shoulder, his hands sliding down her naked sides, the soapy cloth brushed up against her skin under the surface of the water in the current of the spring.

‘He was admitting he had been wrong?’, this was too much. “Too much.” She swallowed, her eyes still closed.

“You were my whole world for so long and you left me, without telling me why, without explaining anything to me. The puppet, you said you made it so I would always be with you...and you left it behind, like me. What was I supposed to think, Sasori?” She opened her eyes and scowled at him.

“By not taking her, I thought, you would understand that it meant I wasn’t ready to let you go. I thought you knew me well enough to know my intentions.” He whispered, his forehead still on her shoulder, his hands on her naked waist, thumbs gently caressing her skin.

His right hand moved up her skin slowly, squeezing her flesh, molding it in his palm , skimming the slight curve of her breast on the side, across her collar bone to rest on the delicate golden chain. “You still wear my gift, my signature.” He turned his hand, the back falling from the scorpion pendant to slide back down the middle of her chest, back to cup her waist.

“I never take it off.” She admitted.

She had to be brave. She wanted answers.

“Six months Sasori...six months had passed, you came for the puppet and left my letter to you...you didn’t even open it.” 

“I couldn’t bear to.” He confessed.

“...and after...when I read your letter, the one I didn’t think was for me…you left me three sentences, three sentences that explained nothing, how was I supposed to know what your intentions were? I tried to forget about you. I tried so hard to stop loving you that it killed me. I was so lost without you I was so...” She couldn’t finish her sentence, she felt like her heart was breaking all over again.

“I never meant for you to read that. I wrote it when I couldn’t stand the loneliness, being without you was so…” He couldn’t think of any words to express how he felt, every word that came to mind was so inadequate, so useless, he wanted to show her how much he loved her, how much he had missed her, he wanted to...

“Allow me to finish cleaning you dear.” He settled for something more neutral, before things could get out of hand...

Soft deliberate strokes cleaned her body and soothed her aching muscles. Sasori didn’t meet her eyes embarrassed by the truths that hung between them. As he lathered her hair with shampoo and rinsed it for her, he sought out one sentence, just one to express his devotion to her, but he couldn’t.

No words were spoken as he picked her up out of the water and set her on the wooden bench beside the spring to dry her off. 

After running a towel over his red locks and drying his own body off he turned to her, picked her up and carried her to their bed. 

“Are you hungry, Sakura. I made some food earlier when you were in the spring alone.” He offered.

“Please.” She nodded, adjusting her wrists behind her back more comfortably.

Sasori watched her, he couldn’t, not yet. He would release her when she was sure, when he was sure she understood running away was futile, that she belonged here with him, that wherever he went, she would be going with him. So he nodded, pulling a blanket up to cover her, pulled a pair of pants from the dresser and tied them around his waist. Then left the room to get her the food he had made her.

He didn’t trust her not to run, that much was clear. She didn’t trust herself around him, that was the problem. She hadn’t lied. She meant everything she had said. She did love him, she had missed him and she did want him...but she loved Gaara and she loved Shukaku too. Sakura groaned and would have rubbed her face in her frustration but she couldn’t.

The truth was, she liked his touches, but they had misunderstood one another, he hadn’t communicated his feelings or his intentions to her well enough and she had married Gaara. 

She needed to escape, but she still didn’t have any idea how to do that. He was Sasori, tricking him was near impossible, fighting him without chakra was definitely impossible. 

Sakura looked down at the floor and bit her lip in worry. No matter how much she had tried, she hadn’t stopped thinking about him, that’s why she had tried so hard to erase as much of him as possible from her life. It had all been in vain.

Itachi appeared in a murder of crows before his Hokage, behind them masses of Iwa nin lay dead or dying. Minato made no acknowledgement of Itachi’s presence but the Uchiha knew the man knew he was there.

Gaara stood on Minato’s other side and both the Hokage and the Kazekage looked down at the injured and bleeding Tsuchikage with disgust.

“You led your men to slaughter and brought this upon yourself.” Gaara’s hand rose into the air, his fist opening and closing, compressing a cloud of sand into spikes.

“Kazekage, wait a moment please.” Minato said quickly but it was too late.

Gaara slashed his hand in a downward gesture in front of him, his spikes impaling the Tsuchikage. Gaara’s teal eyes turned toward Minato and Itachi. 

“It is because of that man my wife is not here, your daughter. If his commander hadn’t used a chakra sealing tag on her she would have at least had a fighting chance against my Uncle. As it is, any rumor you may have heard, any myth that was spread about him after the 3rd war, I assure you is true. Akasuna no Sasori is a monster, and he has my wife!” Gaara was losing his patience.

“Sakura is smart, Lord Kazekage. I’m sure she is trying to escape right now.” Itachi was worried as well, but anger would solve nothing.

“I am sure she is, but I do not underestimate my Uncle.” Gaara looked out over the desert, past the blood soaked sand.

“Let us see this map of theirs then and come up with a plan. I want my daughter back just as much as you want your wife Kazekage, son.” Minato put a hand on Gaara’s shoulder.

The two kages' eyes met in understanding and they nodded at one another.

“Itachi, help Temari and Kankuro clean this mess up, tell units one through six to gather and store all of the bodies that can be stored. We will sort through them later.” Minato told Itachi.

“Yes Hokage Sama.” Itachi bowed.

“Come find us when you’re done.” Minato and Gaara turned from the field.

Sasori’s hand hovered over the paralysis poison he had set on the kitchen counter by the rice balls he had made for her but moved on to pick up the small bottle of soy sauce instead. Adding the bottle to his tray he picked it up and walked back to their bedroom.

While the chakra rope was necessary he didn’t want to restrict her anymore than he had to. He knew he had a very small window to convince her to stay with him. In fact, he was sure she was rapidly coming to her own decision on the matter and would either give in or start to fight him tooth and nail very soon.

She was still sitting on the bed where he had left her. He had half expected her to be thrashing around on the floor trying to break the chakra ropes even if it was impossible or in a different room trying to find a way out and away from him.

Sakura watched Sasori walk into the bedroom with a tray of rice balls and tea. His steps were slow and measured, perhaps she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t sure how this would go? He set the tray down on the night stand beside the bed and helped her to lean back against the pillows. Careful of her bound wrists he fluffed the pillows, picked the tray up and sat down beside her.

“Give me one day, to explain, to try to make you understand why I did things the way I did. If I can’t convince you to stay of your own free will by this time tomorrow, you can leave.” He looked her in the eye, challenging her to deny his demand in the form of a request.

He wanted her to stay with him?

“Did you poison those rice balls or my tea?” She asked him casually.

“I thought of it, but no, I didn’t poison either of them, they are both safe.” He smirked at her.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ll tell you after dinner if I accept your terms or not.” She turned for him to untie her hands.

“Not yet. I’ll feed you dear.” He picked up a rice ball and dabbed a bit of soy sauce on it, holding it up for her to open her mouth.

Sakura continued to glare at him. He sighed and popped the rice ball into his mouth and chewed.

“See?” He raised a perfect eyebrow at her with only the slightest of twitches at the corners of his mouth. He knew she was glaring at him for refusing to untie her but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to untie her until he was ready to untie her.

He picked up another rice ball, dabbed it in the soy sauce and held it out in front of her lips for her. Sakura leaned forward and took the small ball of rice into her mouth, her lips brushing his finger tips, her eyes on his, reading his reaction. Pink rose to her cheeks as he closed his eyes when her lips had touched his fingers. She chewed and swallowed.

“Tea?” He asked her, holding the cup to her lips before she could respond.

One sip, then another and he pulled the cup from her mouth. It was a dance, a slow, cautious dance they were dancing together. One stepped forward, the other back. She moved to the right, and he moved to the left. His hand would raise, her head would bow...and so on and so forth until all the rice balls were gone and he had set the tray aside, holding her tea for her once again.

He held her eyes as he tipped the cup up for her, watched her throat move as she swallowed, eyes fixed to the drop of tea that clung to her bottom lip. Without permission, without meaning to his tongue darted out of his mouth, he leaned forward and licked her bottom lip, taking the tea drop away with his tongue. Her stomach flipped and she felt the now familiar pulling swoop of desire tug at her center.

Without meaning to, without realizing it, Sakura leaned forward and mewled at his touch hungry for more. Sasori set the tea cup down on the night stand without looking and covered her mouth with his. Gently at first, light and fleeting. His tongue darted in and out of her mouth exploring her tongue, her lips and her teeth.

“Sasori.” She tried to pull away from him, this was wrong, she was married, to Gaara, to the Kazekage. This wasn’t just adultery, it was treason.

“Don’t pull away from me.” He pulled her with him as he moved back up on the bed. The blanket he had covered her with earlier fell from her shoulders leaving her naked to him once again.

“I want to touch you.” He pulled her up and over his legs so that she was sitting on top of him, her hands still bound behind her back, facing him.

“I want you to feel how much I care for you, how much I’ve missed you.” 

She could feel his arousal underneath her, between her legs through his pants as his hips rose up, his hands at her waist moved her against his groin pressing her down, joining them.

“Sasori...Gaara he…” She began.

“He isn’t here Sakura.” Sasori pulled her head down to his, fingers in her hair twisting her head to the side so he could kiss her neck first, then her mouth. 

She could hear his breathing increase, the pulse in his neck throbbed, her own breath came in short sporadic gasps. The heat between her legs was increasing from the friction of his pants where they were rubbing against her sensitive skin.

“Sasori I…” She moved into him, her body betraying her.

“Do you still want me?” He asked her simply.

Sakura closed her eyes, she had never stopped wanting him and now that she had felt what it meant to want, felt what it was like to be filled with want, she hungered for it, for him to fill her with his desire. “Yes.”

“I want you, I took you, you’re mine.” He lifted her up, pulled the ties of his pants loose and slid them down past his waist to his thighs.

“Look at me.” He demanded, one hand on the side of her face turning her head toward his, his other hand on his cock that twitched against her wet.

“I’ll not beg you Sakura.” The amber of his eyes shown near gold as he looked at her. She nodded, she understood, lifting herself up with her legs so that he could rub the tip of his cock against her desire for him.

“You’re so wet dear, you did want me, didn’t you. Tell me. Say it.” He watched her as she lowered herself back down, his cock sliding slowly up into her body. She exhaled.

“Say it.” He hissed, the pressure of her tight walls around him was everything he had hoped for, when he had touched himself and thought of her, this is the feeling he had longed for those many nights alone in his room at the Akatsuki base.

“I have wanted you, I do want you but…” She hated herself. The way he filled her, stretched her was so different from Gaara or Shukaku, it was more, it was too much.

Sasori rocked up into her, holding her down against his cock by her bound arms. Hooking his hands through the opening between her arms and the sides of her body he pulled her into his erection and thrust up hard and deep.

Her head rolled back at the sudden swooping of her insides, the pull was too great and she closed her eyes. His name on her lips she tossed her head.

“Sasori.” She mewled for him as he thrust up into her once more pulling down on her arms holding her in place.

“Call me Master.” He ground up into her, moving her up, then back down again, sweat dotting his temples.

Bringing his knees up, he kicked his pants off the ends of his feet with a growl.

“You belong to me Sakura, always have. You’re mine.” He lifted her up and off of himself, laying her on her back.

“Lift up for me dear.” He moved a pillow underneath her to ease the pressure of her bound hands while rising her lower half to meet his own more readily.

Bracing his weight with one hand by her head he crawled over her, set his head against her hole, dug into the bed for traction with his feet and thrust up into her, gripping her waist with one hand, her shoulder to keep her from moving further up the bed with the other. 

He watched her watch him, her eyes closing each time he thrust his cock up into her, she would toss her head to the left and then the right when he hit a spot that made her feel good. He wanted to see more, he wanted to make her moan.

“Sakura dear, does it feel good? Do you like it?” He panted, leaning over to kiss her.

“Yes, Sasori Sama, please.” She gasped out in between his lips, her breath heavy, her chest tight.

Pulling one of her legs up and over his shoulder he bent into her increasing his pace. “Look at me Sakura. I want you to know it’s me who is inside of you.”

His eyes were soft, not like Gaara’s, not like Shukaku’s. She had never noticed before now, he had always looked at her like this...had always loved her. Tears slipped from her eyes. She had been so foolish, so naive. How did she not see this part of him before, if she had she wouldn’t have married Gaara...oh Gaara.

“I love you.” Sasori whispered in her ear, his pace slowing slightly, his thrusts longer, more calculated, more controlled to prolong their pleasure.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Sasori Sama.” She couldn’t hold the tears back, they flowed from her eyes wetting her hair.

“I’m sorry.” He dropped her leg from over his shoulder and pulled out of her.

“Let me untie your hands dear.” She turned and he freed the ropes that had bound her, kissing and licking at the burns around her wrists.

“If you want to leave…” He sat back on his legs, naked before her, letting her choose.

“I don’t want to leave.” She looked up at him through her lashes.

“You know what it means, to stay with me, you know I will never let you see Gaara again, you will be labeled a traitor Sakura, we will never be able to go back to Suna.” He didn’t want anymore misunderstandings.

“I can’t stay with you, but I won’t leave right now. You said one day. I will give you one day.” She told him.

“That isn’t what I meant and you know that.” He wasn’t angry, he had expected this...and had prepared for it.

‘She isn’t going to stay with you’, that damned voice in the back of his head told him what he already knew, what he had feared…

He nodded, reaching out for her again, his palms slid under her as he lowered his body over hers again, up her back to grip her shoulders. “I want to be inside of you, guide me home love.”

She drew her right leg up and over his shoulder, reaching down with her hand she took his cock and guided him back inside of her body. He moved against her, willing her to move with him, she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer.

“You’ll give me tonight.” He told her and she nodded.

He pressed his forehead against hers, his breath hot over her face as he began to move faster, her body meeting his, moving with him, taking him deeper into her core.

“I’ll give you tonight Sasori Sama.” She gasped out as he hit her cervix with the tip of his cock and kept pushing into her trying to break the unbreakable.

‘You’ll give me tonight...and I will take every night after tonight from you by force if I have to. Gaara shouldn't have tried to take what was mine’, he said to himself, over and over again in his head as her walls contracted and flexed around his cock, her moaning desire and satisfaction loud in his ear.


	46. Chapter 46

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who are familiar with my writing, know I have severe insomnia and sometimes post chapters thinking they are finished in my insomniac state of unawareness.
> 
> I just re read this fic and am not pleased. Half of the 'points', I had wanted to address, weren't.
> 
> Please excuse, understand and forgive me. I know as a reader it is terribly disappointing when you read a fic to its near completion and it is ....left wanting. Such sentimentality compels me to do this right and to re write the end with more description, detail and events that seemed to have fallen out of my head for some reason.
> 
> This chapter has minor changes that does not make it necessary to re read if you have already read it. The next chapters moving forward will either be completely new or altered.

_“Sakura, I want to show you something I’ve never shown anyone before. You have to promise me though, you won’t tell anyone, not even Sasori Sama.” Gaara was laying next to her in their bed, his little paws wrapped around her middle, his nose buried in her shoulder._

_Sakura opened her eyes and looked to the window beside their bed,”Gaara, it isn’t even morning yet, what time is it...can’t it wait until we get to the training grounds later?” She groaned. Just because he didn’t sleep through the entire night didn’t mean she didn’t need to, or want to._

_“I want to show you before Sasori Sama gets back. He said he would be back some time today. It’s important.” Gaara insisted._

_Sakura didn’t move. Gaara poked her in her tummy._

_“Gaara, can’t it wait for another hour at least?” She moaned and rolled over trying to block his voice out._

_“No, I want to show you now, and I want to know if you can do it too, you’re the third Kazekage’s great granddaughter, you might be able to do it.” He poked her in the tummy again.`_

_“Fine, but the next time you complain that I never want to sleep with you anymore...remember this moment, right now.” Sakura swung her feet off over the side of their bed and yawned._

Minato, Itachi and Gaara stood side by side looking down at the scroll in front of them.

“You say this is a map of all of Akasuna’s safe house locations and that it belongs to my daughter?” Minato counted at least 100 so far across the map, it was...unbelievable.

“Yes, she is the only person besides Sasori himself that has ever been to them.” Gaara grimaced. It was another reminder of the bond she had shared with Sasori that he hadn’t been a part of.

Minato looked up at the Kazekage in surprise. He hadn’t realized how close Sakura had been to Sasori of the Red Sand. It seemed his fatherly instincts had been correct.

“My Uncle will know of course that I have this, will know I would have figured out a way to open it, wherever Sakura is, it won’t be listed on this map.” Gaara was sure of that.

“Not anywhere that you could see at least.” Itachi activated his sharingan, his eyes darting swiftly over the map, memorizing it, analyzing it.

“What’s that?” Itachi tapped his aristocratic finger against a small smudge near the Valley of the End.

“It looks like a smudge from the ink.” Minato said leaning over the map to get a closer look.

“Justu doesn’t leave smudges, my Uncle would never be so careless with something he considered an heirloom.” Gaara looked at the smudge more closely along with Minato.

“It’s...like it was erased, or…” Gaara squinted at the mark, his eyes narrow.

“...or the connection was purposefully broken and the seals were removed so the place couldn’t be accessed through typical means.” Minato stood up and looked at Gaara.

“That’s where we need to look, that’s where he took her.” Minato said, jabbing his finger at the smudge on the map.

‘Gaara’, Sakura woke with his voice in her head and she realized she had been dreaming of him. She wondered briefly if he had been dreaming of her, if he had even slept at all last night...not likely.

She opened her eyes to red, not Gaara’s darker spiky red hair but Sasori’s smoother, longer brighter red hair.

“Good morning dear, did you sleep as well as I did?” Sasori’s lazy drawl filled her ears and she closed her eyes again.

It was so good to hear his voice again, to feel him so close to her, to be with him once more after being apart for so long.

“Yes.” 

Sasori kissed the back of her neck, his lips moving lightly over her skin. She smelled of flowers and heat, of herbs and something more heavy...thier desire, she smelled like him, like sex. 

He watched her chest rise and fall with her quick breaths, she could smell it as well, with every breath their scent rose and fell around them. He could feel the slightest tremor run down the whole of her body from head to foot, where her toes curled in memory of how he had made her feel last night.

A slow wicked smile pulled at his mouth as he ran a hand down her side to cup her hip. She was facing away from him, he spooned her from behind. It was how they had settled after their last bout of intimacy, too tired to move, they had fallen asleep and woken up in the same position. She stretched and her body slid a few inches from his grasp. With a soft tug, a minute pulling of his chakra strings he pulled her back and up against him.

Releasing his strings he pet little circles with his palm over the flat of her tummy and continued to kiss the back of her neck, in between her shoulder at the base, flicking his tongue out every so often to feel her shiver and move her naked body, quite unintentionally up against his own naked body.

“You were worth the wait. Even if I had had to wait two more years, as I had planned, you would still be worth the wait dear.” He gripped her hip and pressed his growing hardness up against her bottom, against her lower back.

No, he hadn’t liked that his inexperienced nephew had gotten to her first, had touched her first, had...taken her first, but he wasn’t about to let her go again, now that he had her back, had taken her back. He had sacrificed too much for her to let her just walk away. 

It may have been different if she truly hadn’t wanted him, if she truly had rejected him...but she hadn't. She did want him, she did love him and she had welcomed him into her bed with only a little bit of persuasion from him.

...and she wanted him now, he could feel the heat of her skin where their bodies touched, could hear it in her soft little sighs that enticed him to pull her head around, fit his mouth over hers and draw the air from her lungs into his own.

“Just one more time, just once more…” She moaned as he entered her, holding her body to his as he flexed up, pushing hard.

Sasori didn’t say anything, she would find out soon enough that he had never had any intentions of letting her leave him again, ever.

With one arm under her head, his hand stroking her throat, flexing over her windpipe choking her gently, his other arm held her lower half to his, moving her body against his, he began a slow and steady pace. He had been a bit rough the first time, less the second but this time he wanted to be gentle, to take his time and really enjoy the feel of her body from the inside.

“Can you feel how deep I am, do you like that Sakura?” He purred in her ear, his fingers flexing against the column of her neck, his tongue tracing the outline of his fingers on her skin as he forced her head back.

“Yes Sasori.” She pushed back with her legs, feet digging into the bedding for traction, back against him as he pushed into her.

“Master, call me Master, Hime.” His hand that had been holding her lower half, dropped down, his nimble fingers toyed with the sensitive nub of her sex.

“Ungh, Master...please.” Sakura cried out at the new sensation his fingers pulled from the wet slickness of her sex.

She could feel the full throbbing of his member inside of her, the tight little circles his finger was playing upon her clit, she arched her back into his palm, felt the pressure of his other hand on her throat and cried out her pleasure.

“Mhmmm, ah...please Sasori, please master please…” She dug her heels into the bedding pushing up against him.

“Not yet dear, not yet, I’m not done yet.” He cooed to her, taking his fingers from her clit, rolling over and pulling her back on top of his chest, his cock still deep inside of her.

It was harder to pump into her sex at this angle but he liked the feel of her back against his chest, her legs wrapped around his own and the freedom it allowed his hands to moved over her body from almost top to bottom as she wriggled against him, with her face to the ceiling, her hair sliding over his chest and around his shoulders.

Sasori wrapped his arms over her playing with her breasts, palms skimming up and down her sides then up again to cup her breasts urging her to move. “Move girl, move into me with your body, you’re in control now.” He moaned into her ear from underneath her.

Little whimpers escaped her as she adjusted to this new position, sitting up a little, settling her arms behind her back bracing her weight, she began to move her hips up then down again, looking back over her shoulder at him to see if it was okay.

Sasori closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her long silky hair tickling his chest and face as she slid over the length of his sex , moving slowly at first, then faster as she sat forward with more confidence. She readjusted herself, her hands planted on his thighs as she leaned into their union, her hair swinging gently back, then forward as she lifted her bottom up, then down and slid back, then forward over his cock.

“You’re so beautiful Sakura, so beautiful when you take your pleasure from me.” He watched her eyes open, she turned back to look at him, her green eyes flashing. He marveled at her expression, she really was enjoying the feel of him inside her, enjoying the fact she was in control, making herself come with his cock.

The tension was building up inside of him though and he wanted more, he wanted her to scream for him. Pulling his knees up and grabbing her by the waist with one hand, the back of her head by her hair with the other, he rose onto his knees holding her up and in the air, then shoving her back down onto the bed so she lay flat on her stomach, he lay on top of her pumping into her in a sort of lazy rhythmic pace.

“I’m going to make you scream.” He told her drawing her ass up into the air as he leaned back gripping her hips on either side with his hands pulling her up and into him. He had been gentle long enough.

There was a muffled “umph.” of surprise, then a push as he felt her bucking back up against him.

“You want it rough dear? I can fuck you roughly if you like…” 

Sakura growled out her pleasure at his words, “Yes, Master, fuck me, I want to scream for you…”

“Perfect, you’re so perfect. I’m never letting you go again, never Sakura, you’re mine, forever.” 

His pace was fast, quick and ruthless; he barely heard her screams of pleasure so concentrated as he was on his own goal, his own release. Only after he had come into her would he realize she had started crying, only after he laid down beside her would he realize she was bleeding, that he had blood on his cock and that she was pulling away from him.

Sakura pushed her healing chakra to her hands and ran them over her hips and in between her legs healing herself. She had been screaming for him to stop, had been crying out in pain begging him to let her go, but it was like he couldn’t even hear her. The look on his face after he had pulled out from her told her that had been the case...he hadn’t meant to hurt her like that…

Her hands fell to her sides, the glow of her chakra fading from her fingertips. The pain was gone but the question remained...what the hell?

“Sakura, are you alright?” Sasori asked her, his fingers combing her hair, hesitant, unsure if he was to blame or not for her discomfort.

“Are you alright Sasori, didn’t you hear me asking you to stop, when you started hurting me?” She turned to face him in his bed, she needed to see his face.

A slight look of confusion mared his normally calm and stoic features. He hadn’t realized she had been screaming for him to stop…”I didn’t.” He confessed.

“Did I hurt you badly?” He placed his hand over her abdomen, touching her lightly as if he might hurt her further.

“I healed myself.” It wasn’t really an answer but she wasn’t sure how to answer him. The situation perplexed her.

“At first I thought it was because we hadn’t seen one another for a while but now, after ...there is something different about you Sasori Kun.” She watched him with her sharp green eyes.

“You were always ruthless, controlled and deadly but you were never ruthless with me, even if you never used your words you were always more...human with me.” She saw the flicker of unease pass over his eyes.

“I couldn’t bear it, leaving you. I…” He began but stopped himself.

Sakura licked her lips, she had a theory, but hoped she was wrong. “Does it, have something to do with those cylinders in your work room, Sasori Kun?”

Amber eyes snapped up to her green ones, she could see the...warning in his eyes and knew she had hit her mark.

“It is not easy to explain. I found a way to take a person’s essence or emotion and...contain it. I was trying to find a way to extract and seal a soul into a puppet.” He tried to explain.

“...but you couldn’t, you could only extract parts of the soul couldn’t you and that’s what is in those cylinders, isn’t it?” She continued to watch him.

He nodded.

“Why pull out your love for me though Sasori Kun?” She understood the displeasure, the guilt, but his feelings for her, her laughter and happiness, his love for her? Why remove that from his soul?

“I could not bear to be apart from you.” He said again. “I wrote that letter you read and realized I would crack, I would break and go to you before it was time, before the time I had allowed myself and I had to find a way to set you aside, you were a terrible distraction from what needed to be done, from what still needs to be done.” He told her.

“What needs to be done?” She asked him, incredibly curious as to what he had been up to in her absence.

“It wasn’t my original plan, but I’m trying to stop a war. The Akatsuki will be coming for the nine tails and what’s left of the one tail. Once they have them in their possession, I believe they are planning to eradicate the human race, in the name of world peace.” He said.

“Eradicate?” She frowned, ‘What’s left of the one tail, she needed to find a way to release Shukaku from that scroll.

“Through mental imprisonment, one of the members calls it the Infinite Tsukuyomi. It is essentially a world wide genjutsu. What I don’t know is if the other members know his plan or not. I do not think it is the case. I think he is using them, to fulfil his own clandestine desires.” He told her.

“I’ve told you before, emotion is weakness. I had to find a way to eliminate my weakness, to save you from the Infinite Tsukuyomi.” He was trying to explain his actions to her, something he had never done, never felt the need or obligation to do before, to justify himself to someone else was...ridiculous.

“It didn’t work completely. I found that I couldn’t pull all of my emotions from my soul, but I could pull the most important most dangerous one from myself at least and seal it away so it wouldn’t interfere with my end goals.” He hoped she understood.

“Love, your love for me…is dangerous?” She frowned at him.

“Love is the most dangerous thing in the world. It makes you do things you never thought you’d do. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He continued to pet her hair.

“I think I found a way now, to extract the whole soul or heart and seal it into a puppet. It was actually you that gave me the final piece of the puzzle.” He sat up in the bed and pulled the covers over both of them.

“I found the chakra you sealed into the puppet you and displaced it with my own chakra and mixed it with your blood so…” 

“You gave her life? What you said before, why you needed my blood, I sealed my chakra into her so…” She couldn’t believe it, the pieces were falling into place in her mind and she gasped, her hands covering her mouth.

“Can I see her?” Sakura asked.

‘Had he made a mistake in telling her? She didn’t seem pleased.’ he wondered but got out of bed and dressed, he would show her and see.

When they had both dressed, she followed him to his work room where he opened a puppet scroll on one of the work tables in front of the shelves of cylinders. Pulling his puppet ‘her’ from the scroll she gasped. 

The puppet turned her head to Sakura and smiled, she blinked and her eyes were…”Those are my eyes, but…”

“It is because of the chakra you sealed inside of her.” Sasori explained.

“She doesn’t need strings?” Sakura knew Sasori didn’t have any strings attached to the puppet but it had turned it’s head and blinked on it’s own.

“She does but she can do very small little movementents for a short period of time using your sealed chakra.” He was watching her carefully, she didn’t seem scared but she definitely wasn’t pleased.

Her eyes went to the shelves of cylinders, then back to the puppet. In the puppet’s chest cavity there was a cylinder with the kanji for ‘Cherry blossom’ on the end.

“That’s…” She gasped, it was the cylinder she had seen but had been unable to open the glass case to handle it.

“Yes dear.” Sasori said, she had made the connection.

“It’s your soul container or your heart.” He told her.

“Sasori this is...to make puppets out of people, I understand that but to take their soul…” She wasn’t sure how she felt about this.

“It doesn't have your soul in it obviously, only your blood and chakra.” He was a little annoyed. He thought of all people she would understand and appreciate the genius that it took to make such a work of art.

“The other cylinder, yours, where is it?” She asked.

“Here.” He pulled another puppet scroll from his packs and unsealed it. A perfect Sasori puppet lay before them.

“I haven’t added anything to it yet.” The cylinder was in the chest of the puppet but there were no chakra traces on it, no emotions surrounded the cylinder.

“Allow me to show you, perhaps if you see how harmless it is, it will quell that nervous energy swirling around you my dear.” He moved to the shelves, on the end and picked up the three cylinders.

Carefully, Sasori opened each of the three cylinders while they stood on their ends and then poured them into the main cylinder, the larger one in the ‘puppet’ Sasori’s chest and infused it with chakra. Immediately, the puppet sat up, turned and looked at Sakura. “It is so nice to see you again my dear.” It’s eyes were amber, clear and beautiful, just like Sasori’s.

“It can talk?” Sakura swallowed the bile that had immediately rose up in her throat as she stared into the life like eyes of the Sasori puppet.

“It has part of my soul in it, whereas the ‘puppet’ you, does not.” Sasori smiled fondly at his creation.

“This is...just too...this is...Sasori, what did you, what have you done?” She didn’t like this one bit.

“This is true art dear. I can make it so we never die. We can be together forever.” He smiled at her, ignoring her distaste.

“Did you make this, these cylinders, this Sasori puppet before or after you took out your love for me?” She asked.

“After of course.” He cocked his head to the side and watched her...she was frightened and it puzzled him.

“This is the best way to defeat the Akatsuki Sakura. Two Puppet Masters, masters of their own stringless puppets, who can’t be poisoned, cut down, put under a genjutsu...we will be practically immortal.” He explained. ‘Why didn’t she understand?’ He frowned again.

“...but, we’ll be puppets. We won’t be alive.” She couldn’t believe her own ears. The man she had admired all her life, had looked up to, aspired to be like, loved, was...insane.

“A soul can never die Sakura. We will neither be dead, nor alive.” He told her quietly, she didn’t understand right now, but she would. Eventually.

“The core is just a holder, a compartment for the soul dear, we can take it in and out or split it as we see fit. We can still... have a family like you want, and only infuse the puppets with our souls when we need to, to protect our family like you want.” He was confident now she would understand.

“How many times.” She whispered her hand moving in a graceful arc to encompass the shelves and all the cylinders behind them, “have you done this Sasori, how many times did you have to experiment with how many souls to get to this end cylinder, this Master product?” She knew him, and knew he would not have infused part of himself in anything that he did not consider perfected.

“Countless.” He didn’t even bother looking at the shelves. Not all of his experiments were there, only the ones that had survived the containment process. It was a pointless question anyhow, why did it matter how many. He scoffed at the vulgar sentimentality, he had taught her better than that.

Sakura swallowed hard. This was worse, worse than she ever thought him capable of. This was ruthless on a different level than mere killing this was...a nightmare.


	47. Chapter 47

Sakura ran her fingertips over the ends of the many cylinders that sat on the shelf of Sasori’s workroom. He had left her to contemplate his accomplishment on her own and to give her some time to think about it. She walked up and down the wall, back and forth. Some of the cylinders pulsed as her fingers touched their ends, some did not. She stopped near the end of the shelf and ran her palm over the ends of the cylinders, here the pulse was more defined, more direct and she wondered if they did so because they were more advanced than the others. 

His progression was clear in the strength of the cylinders as they went down the line to the very end where he had kept his own cylinders, his own soul parts. The cylinders lay open and empty now. Sakura picked up the cylinder that had held his love for her in it and turned it over and over in her hand. She felt a small hum and almost dropped it.

With a quick look over her shoulder at the door to the work room she infused a bit of chakra into her hand and let it flow over the base of the cylinder. 

Thump thump.

She dropped the vessel with a small clatter and backed away from it, gasping for breath, her hand pressed against her chest, over her own heart.

“It is impossible to draw all of it out, just as it is impossible to return all of it to its original container.” Puppet Sasori spoke softly from the doorway to the workroom.

Sakura whirled around to face him. She hadn’t even felt him. Her eyes narrowed, then widened...he had no chakra signature, it was like...he wasn’t even there.

“Where does it go then and why allow such a risk?” She asked the puppet, he was Sasori wasn’t he? If not only parts.

“Where does the soul go when you die? Who knows, perhaps it goes there?” The puppet walked into the room pointing at the wall, soundlessly.

Sakura looked the puppet over, taking the time to notice each detail, something she hadn’t done earlier in her shocked state.

“It’s surreal, you are him and yet…” Her hand rose to touch his face and he let her.

“Is it just his love, his displeasure and his guilt inside of you? Is there nothing else of him in you?” She asked as she caressed the puppet’s cheek.

“You feel so real, not like wood at all.” She marveled.

“What is love, or guilt for that matter?” He asked her and her hand stilled on his cheek.

He took her hand from his face and led her to a bench on the side of the room and sat down pulling her down beside him.

“You can not draw out one without the other. As for his displeasure, or mine I should say, it is also filled with remorse, which is guilt is it not? The displeasure he holds for himself, for all the things he was unable to accomplish, or protect.” The puppet spoke with emotion, so much more emotion than the real Sasori had ever spoken with.

Sakura licked her lips tentatively in thought. “You have none of his conceit or pride, you speak freely without shame or condensation. It’s so odd to hear his voice and these thoughts and know it is him, his, yours.” 

“I thought you knew how I felt about you. I thought I had shown you, told you...I thought it was clear that I wanted you beside me, that everything I did I did for you.” The puppet looked into her eyes and didn’t look away, didn’t change the subject or dismiss the topic by bringing up another. He sat there boldly declaring his feelings for her, his intent and waited for her response.

“I didn’t know. I was hurt and confused. I thought there was someone else that you cared for, above me and I was jealous. It hurt me and I sought comfort from the only other person that I could, from Gaara, whom I knew loved me and would do anything I asked him to. I’m sorry.” She looked down at her feet.

“I left you alone with no clear plan, no words of encouragement. It isn’t your fault. I don’t blame you for going to Gaara. He is not a bad man and he does love you...but not as much as I love you.” He lifted her chin with two fingers and turned her head to meet her eyes.

“I meant every word in the letter I wrote to you Sakura. Every word. I was so ashamed, something...I never knew I could be. You bring out both the best and the worst in me.” He smiled.

“The worst?” She asked him.

“Love can make you do things you never thought you could do, for good or bad.” He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the corner of her mouth.

His lips were soft and it surprised her, he was gentle and kind. The words of her wedding ceremony rang like a bell through her head. ‘Kindness without courage is cruelty in disguise.’ She thought of earlier, in their bedroom how he had hurt her, seemingly unaware. Can one be cruel and oblivious to the cruelty at the same time, clearly...and if his guilt was in the puppet before her...did he care that he had been cruel to her? 

“It is impossible to draw all of it out, just as it is impossible to return all of it to its original container.” That’s what he had said.

“The emotions or the parts of the soul that are left behind, do they still influence the creator, the puppet or the person? Since they are still within existence just, removed from the main body, can they still project?” She asked the puppet.

He smiled, “You were always so brilliant Sakura. It is what makes you so irresistible to me. Yes, they can still project their intent, which is why he was sorry he had hurt you and how he was still able to portray his love for you, even if the emotion was sitting on the shelf in a cylinder, it was still close by, close enough for the intent to remain with him.”

“He has taken out all the elements that make him human though, love, regret and vexation.” She said to herself.

“Yes and he is left with ambition, greed, jealousy, lust and hatred. He still loves you and cares about you but...those emotions overrule any other remnants of his love that might remain.” The puppet added, waving his hand to the shelves of cylinders that lined the wall.

“I never had much regret to begin with.” He mused at her narrow eyed expression.

“It’s useless to regret, that’s why.” The real Sasori stood in the doorway of the work room looking in.

Sakura could see it now, the hardness that she hadn’t seen before. There was a cut to his mouth that he had never had, a steel in his eyes that she couldn’t recall. Was that a result of losing his more human parts, his casting aside what made him feel the most in a vain hope of finishing his...self appointed mission?

“I’m not sure I care for that look in your eyes dear. Tell me. What have you and my puppet been discussing?” His eyes narrowed at her and then his puppet.

“We were discussing the loss of your humanity.” Sakura stood up and met him eye for eye.

“I don’t like what you’ve done Sasori. What if something goes wrong, what if you are trapped in that fake body you’ve created?” She waved her hand at the puppet who had remained sitting on the bench.

“I won’t. I’m not an imbecile.” He scoffed at the very thought.

“Imbecile is not the word I would use to describe your actions.” Sakura sneered at him.

“Sakura, stop, calm down.” The puppet Sasori pulled on her sleeve.

“Do not interrupt us!” Sasori walked into the room and glared at the puppet, his calm reserve extinguished. “What word would you use then, my dear?”

“Desperate. To go to such an extreme to do such a horrible thing Sasori. ‘Countless’, you said you experimented on countless people. Where are their souls now? Trapped in those things?” She flung her arm out to the shelves. “It disgusts me!” Her fists were clenched at her sides, she was furious.

Making puppets out of dead corpses, to use the talents and abilities of fallen foes to protect Suna was one thing, but to use countless, possibly innocent people and seal their souls away for your own perverted experimentation...was cruelty beyond anything she had ever considered before now. It made her sick.

“You ungrateful little…” He took the two steps needed to grab her by the throat, lift her up and slam her against the worktable.

Standing behind her, he bent her over and pressed her face against the hardwood, locking her down flat. “Everything I’ve done, was for you.” He bent over and hissed in her ear.

“I would kill hundreds of thousands to save you, to keep you.” He fisted her hair as he growled into her ear.

Sakura wriggled under him trying to free herself but he had his knees locked behind hers, his fist in her hair pressing her face to the table, his other hand on her hip, bruising her flesh.

“And what do you do girl? You fuck my nephew.” He dug his fingers into her hip until his nails drew blood.

“I married your nephew...and he would never do something like this! You said you understood, you said you forgave me. Did you draw your forgiveness from your soul as well?” She yelled at him trying to dislodge one of her legs to kick him, realizing now he had never had any intentions of letting her go.

“I never had any forgiveness in my soul.” He pulled her pants down and untied his own letting them fall to the floor, angled himself he thrust up hard into her.

She had been dry and it burned. Sakura gasped out and squirmed against him, trying to get away. He laughed. “I’m not Gaara Sakura. I’m not going to let you do and say whatever you want to me. You’re mine and I will use you as I see fit, right now, I want to fuck you.” 

Sasori gathered more of her hair into his fist, pulled her head up and slammed it into the table. “Go to sleep doll.”

The Fourth Hokage and the Fifth Kazekage stood behind the waterfall in the entrance to the cave at the Valley of the End. Team Ro stood solidly behind Minato, while Temari and Kankuro stood behind their brother.

“It’s faint but I can feel her chakra signature. She was here yesterday at the very least. There is a strong barrier here. I sense many layers, it’s almost incredible there could be such a thing. It’s subtle, no wonder I never sensed anything here, but it is … formidable at the same time.” Minato was impressed. Very impressed.

“That sounds like our Uncle.” Kankuro muttered. He really didn’t want to be here but he knew he had to, to support Gaara.

“Our Uncle is a Puppet Master, Poison Master, Sealing Master and a master of cunning, manipulation and secrecy among other things. This will not be easy.” Gaara said calmly, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the sealed door in front of them.

“There is the chakra pulsation of two entrances in front of us and several on the other side of the mountain and cliff side. I think...he used the natural caves and corridors of the volcano to make this place his own.” Itachi had his sharingan active and was looking around them with great interest.

“A dangerous man.” Minato made several quick and complicated hand signs, stepping into the barrier with force. “Release!”

White light filled the cave’s entrance and a fog rose from the stone around them.

“Poisoned gas!” Kakashi shouted.

“Everyone out!” Gaara called out while throwing a wall of sand up between them and the growing fog before running and jumping from the cave mouth with the rest of them.

Sasori’s eyes lifted from Sakura’s naked body, his hand on her hip, ‘someone is trying to get in through the main entrance’, his head turned toward the mouth of the cave even though he couldn’t see through the walls of volcanic rock and granite.

‘Futile’, he knew no one could break his multiple seals, not even Minato Namikaze.

Sasori laid his head on Sakura’s hip and sighed. She hadn’t taken his reveal quite as well as he had hoped she would. He could tell through her fear she was impressed, but surprised if not disgusted. She would understand and accept his decisions in time...they would have an eternity together, there was plenty of time for her to adjust, to accept.

She had become slightly hostile and frantic after their last interaction and he had to subdue her...with a syringe and a sedative. Still, it had gone better than it could have. She hadn’t attacked him after all, he hadn’t let her. He was confident she would understand why he had to take such extreme measures, no doubt she would see past the cruelty to the rationality of their situation...in time. He hadn’t meant to be so rough with her but when she had mentioned his nephew he had...lost control.

His eyes wandered over the expanse of their bedroom to his puppet. He was watching them.

“Why did you sedate her?” The puppet asked.

“She was emotionally distraught. It was for the best.” Sasori told himself.

“She loves you, she is worried for you. That’s why she was so upset.” The puppet told him.

“She has nothing to worry about.” Sasori pet Sakura’s hair affectionately.

“Doesn’t she?” The puppet cocked his head to the side and watched Sasori pet his Sakura. 

His original was becoming unhinged. One moment he was caring and loving to Sakura, the next abusive and unpredictable. The girl had been right, he needed to convince himself to combine their soul again, but how do you trick, yourself?

“What are you implying?” Sasori glared at his puppet self.

“Why undress her again?” The puppet nodded to Sakura who was naked on their bed beside Sasori who was fully clothed.

“She’s beautiful.” Sasori ran his hands over her naked body and closed his eyes. “Her skin is so soft and warm. It calms me.”

“You are only thinking of yourself.” The puppet’s voice lowered in disapproval at the man’s actions. “I am beginning to see why you cast out the emotions that you did. Having love and guilt in your soul would hold you back, there is no question about that.”

“Love, is not necessary right now, but it will be later. I could not banish all of my love for her from my soul, if I had...I would not have this desire for her still, this wanting...this yearning.” Sasori frowned at his puppet.

“Desire is not love, yearning is not passion it is the evil that accompanies, it is the action without trust. She no longer trusts you. All that is left of your love is lust and jealousy.” The puppet wasn’t telling him anything he hadn’t already known...still, he didn’t like hearing it.

“Be quiet, or I will dismantle you.” Sasori turned his head back to the naked woman laid out beside him, running his lips over hers softly flicking his tongue out and nipping at her lips.

“You will regret this Sasori. You cast out the best part of your soul. You turn your back willingly on your own humanity. That…” The puppet nodded to him on the bed with Sakura. “Is not love.”

“She will be happy, she will learn to be content, I know what is best for her.” Sasori pulled his shirt off over his head and started untying his pants.

“You contradict yourself.” The puppet criticized him looking at his actions with concern, he was going to hurt her again.

“Silence.” Sasori made a few hand signs and sealed the puppet into silence.

“Sakura, love, let me taste you.” He picked the woman up and laid her down again on the pile of pillows he had set there for that purpose and spread her legs.

Tapping the seal lightly with his fingers, Sasori labeled the cylinder and placed it on his shelf. He turned to look at the puppet who had just entered the workroom.

“Which part of your soul did you cast aside now?” It drawled in his familiar bored voice he used to hide strong feelings with, but rarely boredom.

“Anger and fear. I will need neither to move forward, they will only inhibit me.” Sasori turned to face the puppet.

“Anger and fear. Love and guilt. Displeasure...all the things that make you...you. What is left in there?” The puppet pointed to Sasori’s chest.

“Logic? Insanity? Ambition?” The puppet taunted him.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the puppet. “How did you break my silencing seal?”

“I’m you, fool.” The puppet leaned back against the counter on the opposite side of the room and glared at him.

“...and yet you call me a fool.” Sasori walked past the puppet and out of the room.

“I am more human than the original now.” The puppet moved to the shelf and took down the cylinder with Sasori’s anger and fear.

It was the tinkling of bells that woke her. Sakura pushed herself up slowly on the bed and fell back down. She opened her eyes confused. Her arms didn’t seem to want to support her weight, her legs wouldn’t move. Swallowing hard she choked. There was no moisture in her mouth. “What…” She croaked, her throat was dry like her mouth and she was tired, so tired.

“Try not to move too much dear, you are not yourself.” Sasori’s voice came to her from the other side of the room where he was sealing things into a sealing scroll.

“What...what happened to me, I feel, sick.” She coughed.

“I gave you a mild sedative dear, you were very upset.” He told her as he continued to strip the dresser and the book cases of their things.

“What are you doing?” She watched him, her head resting back against the pillows. She didn’t even have the energy to lift her head.

“We will be leaving shortly. It seems the Kazekage and the Hokage are both working together to take you from me again. I will not allow that to happen. We will be leaving Fire soon my dear, don’t worry. I have everything taken care of. You will want for nothing.” He walked over to her and smoothed her hair back from her face kissing her lightly on the corner of her mouth.

“Leaving but, you said I could leave, that I could go after a day, that you understood.” She was trying to will her body into movement, she needed to leave her fuzzy brain told her, she needed to get out of there and fast, to get to Gaara or Minato, someone…

“I lied. You will not be leaving, ever.” He turned his back to her and continued pulling things from the shelves and sealing them into the scroll.

“Sasori you can’t do this!” Sakura was inching her way to the side of the bed a little at a time.

“I can actually.” He pulled a syringe from his sleeve and walked over to the side of the bed quickly grabbing her unresistant arm and plunging the needle into her vein with experienced precision.

“I told you girl, you belong to me. I will not give you up to anyone. I will not share you with my nephew. You’re mine.” Her hand fell limply over her chest when he dropped it. 

Cold amber eyes looked down at her panicked green ones. “You will never defy me again. I will make sure of it, Sakura.”

‘No, how could you do this to me...this is not love Sasori, this isn’t love...Gaara, oh Gaara, Shukaku, someone, please…’ Her eyes closed, a strangled cry barely escaped her lips.

Sasori turned back to her at the small noise of protest, annoyed. “You will thank me later.” He pulled the blanket up and over her naked body and turned back to gathering and sealing their belongings. 

“I will take you far away, where they will never find us. We will live there together in peace until the world falls in on itself, until there is only us.” He promised her unconscious form.


	48. Chapter 48

“We need to try another entrance, maybe one on the other side of the cliff.” Temari suggested.

“He has to come out eventually doesn’t he? He will need food right?” Kankuro asked.

“He has a scroll linked to all of his other bases and the transportation seal in each one. He could thrive in there for decades without anyone ever seeing him outside of this mountain.” Minato said absently, his mind picking apart each advantage, each scenario.

“Shukaku’s connection, can he talk to his other self? His Yin self Kazekage?” Minato asked Gaara.

“He has told me it is dark, that his Yin self is sealed, he can hear voices sometimes but not all of the time. Which leads me to believe, Sasori does not have the tailed beast scroll on him, but in a room and Shukaku can only hear them when they are in the same room as him.” Gaara said.

“Is there a way, since only half of the beast has been sealed, to recall his other half?” Minato asked.

“If there is a way, I do not know it. Sakura might but…” Gaara waved his hand at the cave before them.

“Every jutsu has a weakness.” Itachi hummed to himself, his eyes scanning the mountain before him.

“There. It appears there is a single seal holding…” Itachi paused and narrowed his eyes. “Water? There is a seal on the far side of the mountain about there.” Itachi pointed at the only weak point he could find.

“Water?” Minato looked to where Itachi was pointing.

“There is a natural hot spring that feeds off of the dormant heat of the volcano from the mantle. This used to be a very popular hot spring for our village until one day, it just stopped flowing. We thought the Spring had dried up, or that the mantle had finally cooled.” Minato said eyes focused at the same place Itachi’s were.

“It appears that is not the case. Sasori has sealed it off, for his own private use.” Itachi smirked.

“That sounds like something my Uncle would do.” Gaara sighed.

Minato had been watching his new...son-in-law since he had met him at the sand cave by Suna. It was clear to Minato the boy really did care for his daughter and given their history he didn’t doubt it. His only concern was for the boy’s mental stability. The rumors about the two young Sand shinobi were frightening if half of them were to be believed. 

However, the Kazekage seemed calm, logical and determined. He was angry of course, short tempered and demanding but that was not unusual for such a situation. In fact the Hokage thought the Kazekage was handling the situation quite well...given his past.

“Shall we give it a try Kazekage?” Minato smiled at Gaara.

Gaara looked at Minato with cool teal eyes. “You and I will go first. You will break the seal and I will use my hardened sand to redirect the flow of any water that may be released as a result of our...meddling. You.” Gaara turned to his brother and sister. “Will follow on the heels of Team Ro. I want to move fast, once the seal is broken and the water redirected, your team will move in, followed by my siblings.” Gaara told Team Ro, who nodded their understanding.

Gaara turned back to the Hokage with a look of inquiry.

Minato nodded, “Once inside I will locate Sakura.” 

“We will not engage Sasori, this is to rescue Sakura only. Is that understood?” Everyone nodded except for Gaara.

“You do as you wish. My uncle and I have unfinished business.” Gaara leapt up to the side of the mountain running fast followed closely by the rest.

Minato grimaced, he had a very bad feeling about this.

Minato made the hand signs quickly infusing his hands with as much of his chakra as he could and pressed them against the small seal on the side of the mountain. Water broke free of the rock that burst from it’s fixed place and rushed over the side. Gaara’s hardened sand flew up to divert the water as planned and Team Ro leapt through the opening, over the flowing water into the cave, followed by the Sand siblings, and the two Kage’s.

Sasori was in his workroom when he heard the explosion and felt the walls shake. Sasori’s head jerked up. “Impossible.”

“It isn’t actually.” Kakashi rushed into the work room, his Lightning blade crackling low at his side.

Wooden beams burst from the floor of the room winding in and out of one another in their attempt to lock the Puppet Master in place. Sasori dodged and weaved around them with ease, his chakra strings flying out from his fingers cutting them into kindling.

“I am a Puppet Master, you can’t defeat me with sticks.” He scoffed, pulling his puppet scroll from his waist.

“You are a traitor and a dead man Sasori.” Gaara’s sand flew through the door past Kakashi and Yamato’s attacks.

“Nephew, you still have several more years to even attempt to try your skill against me. Even your late Father knew better than to attack me with his sand.” Sasori smirked as he flared his chakra and Gaara’s sand fell down useless around them scattering like diamonds across the black volcanic floor.

A flash, then another and MInato was behind Sasori with a kunai to the back of his neck. “Your Nephew didn’t come alone.”

“Clearly.” Sasori scoffed and waved his hands to Kakashi and Yamato who had quickly gotten back on their feet after having been knocked down by Gaara’s sand.

“Where is my daughter?” Minato asked Sasori calmly, his kunai still at the man’s throat.

“You mean my Sakura. She is no longer any concern of yours, any of yours.” Sasori turned his head to the blonde.

“Useless, the lot of you.” Sasori’s chakra rose around him like a wave and knocked them all back up against the farthest wall.

“Enough of this.” Itachi Uchiha appeared in a murder of crows, arm outstretched and locked Sasori to the wall on the other side of the room.

“Now.” Itachi commanded.

Kankuro threw Black Ant into motion, locking Sasori inside it’s barrel shaped chest.

“Fools, imbeciles, you idiots, you think you can trap me with my own creations?” Sasori’s voice was maniacal.

Temari and Kankuro’s eyes went wide, they had never heard their Uncle speak with such...malice and hate, with such raw evil...he sounded insane.

“Seal him quickly!” Gaara yelled at Minato who was already making the hand signs and pressing the sealing tag onto Black Ants frame.

There was something different about his Uncle, Gaara could tell. It was small, it was unsettling, but he could tell, he was weakened somehow and not himself.

They all watched as the lines went up and around the barrel of the puppet sealing Sasori inside.

“Where is Sakura?” Temari looked around the room but didn’t see her anywhere.

Gaara was already out the door and moving fast toward Sakura’s chakra signature. He found her in the bedroom, unconscious and...naked. Falling over her body he pulled her to him roughly, trembling with rage. ‘What had his Uncle done to her, this was all his fault’, he would never forgive himself for this.

“Sakura.” His voice was broken, he didn’t notice the others entering the room. He didn’t see the look of disgust and outrage on Minato and Itachi’s face, the hard look of denial on Yamato and Kakashi’s, the look of fear and horror on the faces of Temari and Kankuro.

He could only see Sakura, her pale face slack and unresisting, the black and blue finger prints that bruised her milky white skin along the rise of her shoulders, her waist and the inner flesh of her thighs. The bite marks on her body were clear and there for everyone in the room to see and it made him sick.

“Gaara. Let me dress her. Take the other’s and wait outside.” Temari put her hand on her brother’s shoulder. Like the others, she was horrified.

“Thank you Temari.” Gaara’s voice was small.

“Find Shukaku.” Temari turned to push the rest of the men out of the room.

Once they were gone she turned back to look at the small woman on the bed. “It’s going to be okay Sakura. I’m going to get you dressed, then we’re going home, back to Suna.”

Temari had Sakura clothed and ready to go when an explosion shook the entire mountain.

“Shit.” Temari turned to the door where her Uncle clutched the frame, blood dripping from his left arm and the side of his face.

“Do you think I'll just let you take her and leave?” He threw his chakra strings out, wrapped them around Temari’s throat and jerked both of his hands back against his bleeding chest.

Temari fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Clutching his chest, Sasori staggered to where Sakura still lay on their bed and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. He only had to make it to the secondary seal in his workroom, if he could make it there, everything would be okay.

Gaara and MInato disappeared before Team Ro and Kankuro, before they knew what was happening. Kankuro groaned and rubbed his hands over his face, purple paint notwithstanding.

“Sakura!” Gaara called out her name as they ran down the narrow corridors toward Sasori’s workroom. They could feel both of their chakra signatures moving slowly down the hall and away.

Minato threw his kunai and flashed away repeating it until he saw Sasori with his daughter over his shoulder ahead of him. Minato threw his kunai again, flashed and threw it into the workroom cutting Sasori’s path off and locking him in between Gaara and himself.

“This ends here. Put her down Akasuna.” Minato narrowed his eyes at the man before him, disgusted by what he had seen. 

It made his stomach turn imagining what his daughter had gone through at the hands of this man. He had never wanted to kill anyone more than this man before him, but he needed to make sure his daughter was safe first.

“She’s mine.” Sasori looked past Minato into his workroom where the puppet he had made of himself was looking back at him.

Minato took one step back and to the side to see who was behind him, he hadn’t felt a chakra signature but it was clear someone or something was behind him by the way Sasori had been looking behind him. Minato saw the puppet and grimaced.

“What will you do now?” Sasori asked, genuinely curious. 

The man didn’t know he and his puppet disagreed where Sakura was concerned. Sasori himself wasn’t sure what his puppet would do and he chastised himself for not sealing it away before going back to his Sakura. It seemed even without his love for her in his soul, she was still a distraction.

“You are cornered Uncle. This ends here.” Gaara took one step then two toward his Uncle.

Sasori’s eyes went wide and he laughed, “You think you can take her from me boy?”

“Not alone, but we can.” Gaara looked past Minato, to where the puppet Sasori stood, hands at his side watching, a look of mild interest in his eyes. The puppet nodded in understanding.

Gaara let out his breath that he had been holding. It had been a risk. Sakura didn’t know but Gaara had read her diary, every week since they were children. He had read the passage about what she had found in Sasori’s safe house. Gaara had noticed small changes in her, and he saw the small changes in his Uncle, the way he moved, the words he used...he could tell since their arrival, something was off with the man, his chakra was...different, not as strong. He also knew the one thing his Uncle didn’t have in his heart right now, was his love for Sakura. He had hoped, the puppet had that love in his heart and would help them rescue her. 

Itachi had noticed it too and had made a comment on it when they found the beast scroll that held the other half of Shukaku. When Gaara saw the puppet behind his Uncle, saw it move without chakra strings...he knew his hunch was correct. His Uncle had sealed away his humanity, his greatest strength.

Gaara’s sand rose up around him, blocking both Minato and the puppet from Sasori’s immediate view. Minato threw his kunai past Sasori into the wall and flashed past him pulling Sakura from his arms as he did so, throwing another kunai to the end of the corridor flashing and set her on the floor as Itachi, Kakashi and Yamato came around the corner. 

“Get her out of here!” He yelled.

Kankuro picked the woman up off of the ground and started running down the hall followed by the others.

Sasori threw chakra strings out in front of him toward Sakura and his other out to the side to keep Minato from flashing to her again but his strings were tangled and cast aside by another set of chakra strings. Sasori turned wild eyes to this new interruption.

“How dare you.” Sasori’s eyes burned into the wooden frame of his puppet self.

“I made you.” He hissed at the puppet.

“And by doing so, you lost yourself. You’re not worthy of her, maybe we never were.” The puppet wrapped his strings around Sasori tight and pulled him to the ground, “Now!”

“Sand coffin!” Gaara’s sand rose up in a wave and flooded the narrow corridor. His fist clenched tight in the air and blood splattered the walls of the cave.

The puppet moved forward with a cylinder in hand, chakra strings spread out into the bloodied mass pulling what it could from the barely breathing man.

“He’s not dead?” Minato stepped forward and looked down at the redhead.

“Stubborn to the very end Uncle.” Gaara stepped up beside MInato and looked down. Sasori was bleeding far too much to survive even if his body had survived Gaara’s sand coffin.

“Take it.” Sasori ignored his Nephew and the Hokage speaking directly to his puppet self. “Take it so I can tell her once again.”

The puppet nodded, bent and ripped Sasori’s heart from his chest with his chakra strings and sealed it into the cylinder in his hand. The cylinder burned bright, the immense thrum of Sasori’s chakra pulsated and throbbed against the walls of the cave. The puppet wove three more hand signs and sealed Sasori’s chakra into the cylinder and looked up at the two Kage. “Sakura will want it.” He said simply.

Gaara lifted his sister’s body up into his arms, nodded to Minato, his sand rising up around them as they disappeared from the cave, Sasori’s puppet with them.


	49. Chapter 49

Light poured into the small hospital room falling over the face of the pink haired woman laying still in the hospital bed. The heat of the sun’s rays woke the red head by her side. Gaara held her hand, careful of the many bruises that lined her wrist and forearms. Gaara had refused to let her students heal her bruises, he didn’t want anyone else to see her shame. He was not ashamed, but he knew she would be if he had let them heal her.

Knock Knock.

“Kazekage Sama, your sister is awake and asking for you.” The nurse bowed low and left the room after delivering her message.

“I’ll stay here with her, go Gaara, she will be safe with me.” Minato waved the Kazekage out of the room.

Gaara nodded and left with only one more backward glance at Sakura in her hospital bed. 

Minato rose from his seat after Gaara had left taking his place beside his daughter’s bed. “I’m sorry it took us so long to get you back Sakura. I’m sorry for everything. We thought, your mother and I, we thought you were dead or we never would have stopped looking for you.” Two tears fell down Minato’s cheek as he rubbed his thumb over his daughter’s limp hand.

“This is my fault. If I hadn’t stopped looking for you, if I had just came to you sooner when i did find you and maybe made you come back to Konoha with me, maybe this wouldn’t have happened and maybe he wouldn’t have…” Minato choked.

Sakura’s hand twitched and he looked up to see her open her eyes slowly as though her lids were terribly heavy.

“Not your fault, Dad.” She mumbled and closed her eyes again.

Minato gripped her hand hard and buried his face in her bedding...and sobbed.

“You look like shit.” Temari smiled weakly up at her brother from her hospital bed.

“I thought you were dead.” Gaara took his sister’s hand in his and stood rigidly at her bedside.

“Naw, it will take more than our Uncle to kill me.” She said with a smirk.

“If he had wanted you dead Temari, you would be.” The truth of his words fell around them like ice water.

“Why didn’t he?” Temari asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I don’t know why his puppet helped us save Sakura and defeat him either.” Gaara said. He had his theory of course but there was no point to going into it with his sister.

“Defeat?” Temari frowned. “He isn’t dead?” She asked, confused.

“We had to get you and Sakura back to Suna as quickly as possible. She was...hurt severely by Sasori and you...like I said, I thought you were dead but then I felt it, the slightest flicker of your chakra. Team Ro picked Sakura up and I ran to you, we brought both of you back to Suna. Our Anbu and the Leaf’s went back to retrieve his body and...it was gone.” Gaara said through clenched teeth.

“So he’s, he could be...alive?” Temari couldn’t believe it, she couldn’t believe they had come so close to killing Akasuna no Sasori and had left him there unresolved only to find the body missing later.

“Why Gaara?” She demanded. “Why didn’t you make sure he was dead before you left? He will come back and kill us all now!”

“I’ll be waiting.” was all he said in reply.

Temari looked at her brother with angry eyes. She couldn’t move her head, her neck was in a vise attached to her bed rails, so she settled for silent seething. Eventually he left for Sakura’s room again and left her to stew alone.

“I’ve sent out three of my best Anbu teams to track him down.” Minato told Gaara as soon as he came back into the room and took his place on Sakura’s other side.

“They won’t find him even injured as he is. The time it took us to get back to Suna and get both my sister and Sakura stabilized was more than enough time for him to slip away forever.” 

Gaara knew it, Temari and Kankuro knew it and he thought, Minato also knew it. He knew that sitting around and doing nothing was also, not an option.

“What does Itachi have to say about the puppet?” Gaara asked Minato.

“The puppet claims to be Sasori’s cast off emotions, the emotions Sasori didn’t think were important.” Minato said.

Gaara nodded. That sounded like something his Uncle would do and it fit the description in Sakura’s diary.

“We’ll find out more when Sakura wakes. I’m sure she has all of the answers.” Gaara watched his wife’s face.

“Shukaku will be happy to be sealed within her again.” Gaara commented absently.

Minato watched the redhead. “You really do care about her don’t you.” 

Gaara looked at the blonde. “She is my wife and my best friend.”

“Thank you, for...being there for her when I wasn’t, when I couldn’t be.” Minato smiled at Gaara.

“You’re welcome.” Gaara looked back at his wife in the bed. “She told me, before all of...well before, that she wanted normal. She wanted the pictures on the wall like she saw at Shisui Uchiha’s house, she wanted the birthday parties, the pictures of family, the photo albums, like you and Naruto have.”

“Does she?” Minato looked hopeful.

“As you probably know, Sasori didn’t raise us...normally. Give her time. She knows you are a good man and...so do I.” Gaara looked at Minato with a nod.

“Thank you Gaara. Kazekage.” Minato smiled, pleased.

“I’m glad the two of you are getting along but do you mind? I can’t sleep with you two yapping and going on and on about your feelings.” Sakura cracked one green eye open and glared at her father, then her husband.

“Bring me Shukaku. I want my Sand tanuki back.” She closed her eye again.

Gaara smiled at his wife and pulled the scroll from his pouch. “Hokage, would you do the honors?”

Minato looked down at the scroll and then at Sakura who had opened her eyes.

“Are you sure?” He asked her.

“He is my mate, along with Gaara.” She smiled at her father.

“Okay.” Minato sent condensed chakra to his finger tips and placed the sealing scroll over her tummy. “Five finger point release and seal!” His fingers hit her tummy hard, digging into her flesh momentarily.

The black of the seal blazed red then yellow and faded quickly leaving no marks. Sakura sighed and made a hand sign. Yin Shukaku popped up beside her in the bed.

“Sakura! I missed you! I’m going to kill the Puppet for this! I’m going to rip his limbs from his body and piss on his soul for what he did to you!” Shukaku ranted and ranted until Sakura placed a calming hand over his head and drew him close to her face.

“Shukaku, later okay. I’m so tired.” She kissed him on his sandy head and he stopped, dropped down into a comfortable position in the crook of her shoulder by her neck and settled down.

“Can you tell us Sakuira, about what happened, about the puppet, Sasori and what he...did to you?” Gaara took her hand and sat down on the bed beside her and Yin Shukaku.

Sakura sighed. “Get me a glass of cold water and I’ll tell you everything.”

Slowly, Sakura told Gaara and her father...everything. Gaara’s face went cold with fury when she told him she had let him touch her willingly and then red with rage when she told them how he had touched her without her permission. Shukaku had cried when she admitted she still loved Sasori even after everything he had done to her.

Minato remained quiet and expressionless, but couldn’t hold back the slight flinch when she told them how he had planned on sealing their souls into their wooden puppets he had made for them.

“He wanted us to live together, forever.” She ended.

Gaara let go of her hand, rose from his chair and left the room. He couldn’t bear to look at her until he calmed down, sorted out his feelings and could silence Yang Shukaku in his head.

“Sakura, you still love him? After what he did to you?” Minato asked his daughter once they were alone with only Yin Shukaku still on her bed by her head silent tears streaming down his face.

“I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t even understand it myself. He isn’t that man anymore, the man I fell in love with...he isn’t even a man anymore he’s a puppet.” She said.

“We didn’t find his body, Sakura, he might still be alive.” Minato told her.

“Oh.” She looked down at her hands not sure how she felt about that. “I want to talk to the puppet.” She said slowly.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Minato asked, she had just woken up, she needed to rest but he was apprehensive to deny her as well, their relationship was so new.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t expect you to understand...it is something I just need to do.” She said firmly.

“Okay, but not alone. I’m not letting part of Sasori in here with you alone.” Minato rose to summon Itachi.

“Fair enough.” Sakura nodded her understanding at his caution.

Itachi knocked on the door of Sakura’s hospital room door and entered when he felt her flare her chakra. The puppet Sasori walked in after him, his eyes immediately fixed onto Sakura’s.

Itachi went to stand beside Minato who had moved from her bedside to the window.

The puppet Sasori looked at the two men by the window briefly, then pulled the chair up closer to Sakura’s bed and took her hand. Minato took a step forward but was stopped by Sakura who raised her hand. 

“You may stay, you and Itachi both, but do not interfere.” Her voice was strong, her eyes fixed on the puppet.

“Where is mine?” She asked the puppet.

“Here dear.” The Puppet withdrew a scroll from his pouch and laid it in her hand.

Sakura licked her lips and turned the scroll over once then twice and looked back up at the puppet.

“You’ve joined together haven’t you, the rest of his soul? I can feel it in you, his chakra, in here.” She held up the scroll and placed her hand over the place in his chest she knew his core was.

“Yes. I took the rest of my soul back.” He smiled softly at her.

“So you’re whole again? She closed her eyes.

“Yes, as much as I can be.” He bent and kissed her hand.

“I’m sorry Sakura. I’m sorry for all of my failings but most of all for hurting you.” The puppet told her gently.

“Did you keep out his reservation, his arrogance?” She joked at his gentle words.

The puppet smiled at her. “No.”

“Where will you go? You know you can not stay here and you know I will not go with you.” She asked.

A small strangled noise drew their attention to the door where Gaara stood watching them talk.

“I have a few unfinished things to do yet. The Akatsuki will come for the one tail and the nine tails. They were going to take the eight tails when I left them. They might even have it now.” he looked down to their joined hands.

“I do love you Sakura. It may not have seemed like it at times, but everything I did since I met you, was for you.” He let go of her hand, leaned over her bed and kissed her mouth gently.

Gaara’s sand flooded the room and Minato had his hand on Sakura’s shoulder in an instant pulling her away from the puppet.

“You’re in good hands. There is nothing more I can do for you, right now.” Sasori smiled at her, his eyes flickering from Gaara to her father.

“Everything you need is in that scroll dear. I’ll see you again. Take good care of her Nephew.” Sasori left the room, left Gaara, Sakura and Minato without looking back.

“Let him go.” Sakura said when Itachi made to go after him.

“Sakura.” Gaara hissed.

“I’m not going with him. I am your wife. Are you my husband?” She looked from Yin Shukaku to Gaara who flinched.

“Do you still want me, after...him?” Gaara asked her as though they were the only ones in the room.

“If you’ll have me.” She whispered.

“There has never been anyone else for me but you Sakura.” Gaara said honestly.

She nodded her head. “I’m sorry Gaara. I’m sorry Shukaku.”

“Our love for you is unconditional Sakura.” Shukaku said. “You hurt us, but it would hurt more not to have you in our lives so we forgive you. Don’t we?” Shukaku looked at Gaara who nodded.

“We forgive you.” Gaara said.

**Six weeks later...**

She was alone in her workroom when she opened the scroll the Sasori puppet had given her. Laid out on the work table before her was not the puppet he had made of her but a new puppet. A letter was pinned to the chest of the puppet, her name written in small crisp, neat strokes.

“Sasori.” His name slid from her lips as she licked them and swallowed.

Slowly, her long fingers reached out and unpinned the note from the puppet.

_My dear,_

_This will be my last gift to you for a long time. Tell Gaara he needs to tighten his security, it was far too easy for me to slip into Suna and steal the Tsuchikage’s body. I have drawn out a diagram of the adjustments I installed in his casing. I think you will be most pleased with the additions, he is one of my best puppets, aside from the two I made for you and I._

_There will be no misunderstanding this time. I want my intentions perfectly clear. You belong to me and only me. Enjoy this small victory dear, it is fleeting. Enjoy my nephew’s soft kisses and childish embrace while you can. I will be coming for you. I do not know when yet, but I will come and when I do...you will not refuse me. Take care of our child dear, while you can._

_Akasuna no Sasori._

Sakura stared down at the letter. “Impossible.” She looked at the former Tsuchikage in awe. Sasori had stolen his body and had made him into a puppet...so quickly which meant…”No.”

“He planned this, all along he planned this and now.” Her hand clasped to her mouth and she ran to the bathroom where she threw up.

Wiping her mouth with a cloth she walked back to her workroom and picked the letter up again and re read it twice. “He’ll be back. How did he know I was pregnant?” She sat down in the chair at her desk and picked the letter up again.

‘Take care of our child dear, while you can.’ So, he didn’t have any plans of taking their child with them and he thought it was his? It could be Gaara’s child just as easily...was that why? No he had said ‘Our’ child, he thought it was his.

She had known for the last week that she was pregnant, but hadn’t told Gaara yet, She didn’t know how. Shukaku had been ecstatic when they found out but had promised to keep it a secret until she was ready to tell Gaara. It had taken some bribery but she had won Shukaku over.

Sakura sighed. She needed to tell him.

“You’re thinking so loudly I can hear you from here.” Gaara smiled at his wife from the other end of their couch that evening. “Whatever it is, just tell me Sakura.”

He knew she was pregnant and was waiting for her to feel comfortable enough to tell him. He figured she would tell him when she was ready, he was patient.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at her husband. ‘He already knows doesn’t he?’, she glared at Shukaku in her mind who shook his head.

‘I didn’t tell him I swear’, Shukaku tried to look innocent. ‘It was Yang Shukaku. He was too excited to keep it a secret’, Shukaku admitted.

Sakura sighed. “I’m pregnant Gaara but I don’t know if it is yours or if it is Sasori’s.” She held her breath.

“The baby is ours. Yours, mine and Shukaku’s.” Gaara pulled her into his lap and kissed her forehead.

“How can you be so...calm about this?” She was shocked.

“Do you want me to rampage, to yell at you, to be angry?” He asked her reasonably.

“Of course not but, I mean...Sasori.” She frowned.

“Sakura, he’s gone. Our baby will be raised with love and compassion. It might be mine too you know.” He pointed it out to her like she didn’t know.

“I know.” She put her hand over her tummy and smiled at him.

“I love you Gaara.” She kissed him.

“You’re my everything Sakura, no matter what.” He closed his eyes, his chin on her head, her head against his chest, her own eyes closed.

“Just breathe with me. Do you feel my heart Sakura? It beats for you, our child and the family we will have.” He kissed the top of her head.

‘It’s in the past’, he told himself.

‘It doesn’t matter’, he sighed.

‘She’s ours’ he inhaled her scent deeply.


	50. Chapter 50

**Six weeks ago...**

_“One two three.” He counted the cylinders before him then turned to the left. “Four five six.” He smiled._

_Sasori pulled out the three medical storage scrolls from his pouch, unsealed each one over a cylinder and watched her blood drip slowly into each tube. With great care, he infused his chakra into each cylinder, sealed it and set it into the glass case at the end of the shelf._

_Moving back to the other three cylinders on the counter he pulled a kunai from his pouch and sliced open his arm, let his blood drip into the cylinders, sealed them, infused them with his chakra and placed them into the glass case on top of Sakura’s cylinders and sealed the case with his chakra and more blood before healing his cut with a minor healing jutsu._

_Sasori smirked as he walked out of his workroom and down the hall to his lab. He was sure his nephew knew he had survived their little attack but it didn’t matter, there was nothing the boy could do to stop him now, Kazekage or not._

_His puppet had been clever. He had never considered the benefits of having a puppet ally that had part of your soul sealed into its chest. It was essentially duplicating oneself. Which is how he had come to be here. His puppet had saved him right under the noses of the Hokage and the Kazekage. Only half of his soul had been taken, and half of the parts of him he had cast aside into the puppet had been returned to his original body._

_Now, he could be in two places at once with one consciousness. He regretted that he hadn’t thought of this sooner. If he had...well, that didn’t matter now. He had thought of it now and he would utilize it to its fullest. His puppet was with Sakura in Suna. He saw everything she said and did, was by her side when he couldn’t be._

_Gaara was there too and that dirty tanuki but it didn’t matter to Sasori in the broard scheme that was his plans for their eternal future, it simply didn’t matter how many times the boy kissed her or lay with her, how many times the tanuki took the boys form and made love to her...she was still his, she just didn’t know it yet._

_Sasori bit his thumb and pressed it against the teleportation seal on the door at the end of the hall. His body flickered, then appeared in an enclosed underground room. Large glass tubular holding cells lined the walls, evenly spaced along the sides leaving a narrow aisle in the middle._

_Sasori checked the temperature gauge for each unit as the shadowy figure within floated silently encased behind three inch thick cylinder glass. Sasori rubbed the side of the first tank with the end of his sleeve and peered inside._

_Pale ghostly creamy skin glowed white in the dim lighting, fine bubbles rose up from the bottom of the tank moving the silky fine strands of long pink hair over the figure’s head. Her eyes were closed of course, they wouldn’t open until her core had been attached to the hole in her chest, her chakra and blood fused to the body...but she was ready and waiting patiently, like the other two he had grown from her blood and tissue he had retrieved from Orochimaru before killing him._

_Moving across the room to the other wall he checked the temperature gauges again and then wiped the side of the tank with his sleeve to peer at his own body within. It was the same, red hair danced around the fine bubbles that floated to the top from the bottom. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance this time._

_After making sure everything was in order Sasori walked to the seal in the middle of the tanks and bit his thumb. Pressing it to the seal he appeared back in the hall outside of the dummy door , turned on his heel and walked back to his workroom where a body of the Tsuchikage that lay dead and motionless on his work table._

**Present Day…**

“All that is left is the one tail and the nine tails.” Pein’s deep voice addressed the Akatsuki members, most in a fragmented representation of themselves using their chakra to cast their presence.

“The nine tails will not be easy to obtain. I will go myself to capture the nine tails.” Pein said.

“Kisame and Deidara, you two capture the one tail. Dismissed.” Pein’s fragmented image flickered out.

Deidara came to himself first from the transmission and frowned. They wanted him to go after Gaara of the Sand? ‘Maybe it is a good thing it's me and not someone else’, he rubbed his chin, but how much did he really owe that woman for saving his hand? Deidara opened his palm and his tongue flopped out of the mouth that was embedded there. 

“A lot.” He made a face and stood up, Kisame had come out of the transmission and was stretching.

“I think I have the most chakra between us and it drains me a bit. Want to get something to eat then head toward Wind for the one tail?” Kisame asked his partner.

“Good idea yeah.” Deidara turned and grinned at his partner. ‘Too bad’, he thought to himself, Kisame was a decent enough guy but it couldn’t be helped.

It would take them roughly two days to get to the Land of Wind and then a half a day to get to Suna once they were in Wind territory. Deidara waited until Kisame went to use the bathroom to scribble a quick note onto one of his clay birds. 

“The fried squid was pretty good here wasn’t it?” Kisame asked conversationally as he took his seat across the table from Deidara again.

“Yeah it was un, we should get another order, for the road, on sticks.” Deidara watched his little white bird flying off toward Suna as he reached for his cup of iced tea and milk.

“That’s not a bad idea. I think we should make camp tonight and board up before we cross into Wind country for a good night’s rest. We won’t want to sleep or camp in Wind to or from capturing the one tail.” Kisame commented to his partner.

“Makes sense yeah.” Deidara nodded as the waitress approached them hesitantly.

They were in their Akatsuki robes. Most people tended to give them their space and were wary around them. The organization hadn’t grown back to it’s same capacity that it had been since the devastation of Hanzo but it had much stronger members this time, Deidara included. 

He didn’t have any loyalty personally to the group, but it served his purposes fine after the destruction of Iwa. He didn’t have anywhere else to go. Maybe he could go to Suna, after this, he was sure he would be more than welcome...and he was already welcomed before.

“Are you sure you should be handling your poisons right now Sakura?” Gaara watched his wife with narrowed eyes as she sifted through her assortment of poisons in her cupboard.

“As long as they don’t get on my skin and I don’t drink any of them I’ll be fine, and so will the baby, stop picking at me.” She huffed in annoyance.

Gaara looked at her still flat stomach with worry but quickly schooled his features into a bland indifference when he noticed she was glaring at him.

“I was lucky we got back to Suna in time to welcome them.” She was referring to her new students from Bear and Keys. She picked up a dark and sinister looking poison, her head tilted in consideration of some sort.

Gaara eyed the offending vial with distrust. Once he had found out Sakura was pregnant he had forbidden her from training, which she had surprisingly agreed to, claiming she couldn’t use her chakra anymore without causing possible damage to the baby. She still insisted on doing her morning exercises and talking semi long walks around the perimeter of the village in the evening but all in all Gaara was grateful for her relatively passive compliance.

She, however, didn’t share his point of view regarding the handling of her poisons or other harmful substance she favored and it was the topic of many arguments. Like now. Teal eyes watched as she uncorked one of the blue vials of poison and poured it down the sink. Dark blue and green fumes erupted from the sink causing Gaara to encase the sink in a dome of sand with a small tube-like outlet leading out of the nearby window to redirect the dangerous cloud of poison. He glared at his wife who glared back at him.

“It was only a little noxious gas Gaara.” Sakura put her hands on her hips.

“I am the Kazekage, if I have to I will put you under house arrest for the remainder of your pregnancy Sakura.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“I dare you….” She hissed, crossing her own arms over her chest.

Tap tap tap

Sakura and Gaara looked out the window and saw a little white bird flying back and forth pecking at the glass.

“Deidara?” Sakura recognized the bird as one of the Iwa bombers creations and opened the window wide.

“Gaara!” She had read Deidara’s message and handed it to Gaara.

“So, they’ve finally decided to make their move to take Shukaku.” Gaara looked at his wife. “I wonder if they know only half of him is in me while his other half is in you?”

“Would Sasori have told them ?” She asked, even though she was sure he wouldn’t have put her in danger like that.

“I doubt it.” Gaara said turning the bird over to see if there was anything else written on it. “So, Deidara joined the Akatsuki but warned us of their movements to take my tailed beast.”

“Why would he join the Akatsuki when we told him he could come live here?” Sakura was looking at the little white bird again.

“He didn’t have to warn us, I’m thankful for his efforts.” Gaara handed the white bird to his wife and walked out of her lab.

“I must tell Temari and Kankuro, try not to poison yourself or our unborn child in my absence, Sakura.” Gaara’s voice was playful but she knew he was serious.

“I’ll do my best! No promises!” She called out after him.

Two and a half days later the Village Hidden in the Sand woke just before dawn to fireworks and explosions few had ever seen before.

“A bit of an overkill don’t you think?” Sakura said out of the side of her mouth to Temari as they stood side by side on the East gate watching Deidara fly overhead on his white bird throwing flashing and exploding spiders over Suna, the spiders detonating and throwing different colored sparkles harmlessly over their buildings and citizens.

“It’s pretty.” Temari smirked.

“Where’s Gaara?” The blonde asked her.

“Setting up the trap for Kisame. There is hardly any moisture in the desert so his water style will be considerably weakened.” Sakura told her pointing to the valley entrance to the village.

“Most water style users can’t even pull a cup of water from the air out here in the desert. You’d think the Akatsuki would know that.” Temari laughed a little.

“Kisame Hoshigaki isn’t just any water style user though. Haven’t you read his Bingo book entry? Even if his water style is weakened, he still has the fabled Samehada, it can drain the chakra from it’s opponent enough to kill them. Gaara will still need to be careful even if Deidara is on our side.” Sakura flexed her fingers out in front of her. She had promised Gaara she wouldn’t participate in the fight but she wasn’t going to stay at home and sit on the couch either.

“Is Deidara really on our side though?” Temari asked, a note of concern and skepticism in her tone.

“Anything’s possible!” Sakura said cheerfully.

“You’re weird when you’re pregnant. I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” Temari grinned at her sister.

Sakura didn’t answer her, she was looking off in the distance at the other wall of the village, opposite them. “Here he comes.”

The two women watched as a huge powerful wave of water flew from Kisame’s mouth over the cliffs of Suna, flooding the village.

“He’s trying to make it more difficult for Gaara to use his sand manipulation.” Sakura mused, as Deidara flew past her with a wave.

“Don’t worry!” He called down to her from his bird racing off to the lower part of the village.

Sakura and Temari almost fell to the ground with the next explosion. It was much more powerful than the little spiders he had cast over the village earlier. Temari pointed to where the dust was clearing to reveal a huge hole in the side of the west wall. Water poured out from the streets, through the hole to flow harmlessly out into the desert. Sakura sighed. “He was on our side, thank kami.”

She hadn’t wanted to admit it but she had been a little worried. Deidara might have a big mouth and might be a little hot tempered but he was skilled and had a devastating array of explosives. He could have done some real damage to their village if he had wanted to. Her head turned back to Kisame who was in a three way battle with Gaara and Kankuro.

Deidara landed beside the two women and winked. “I see you got my message un.” 

“Thank you Deidara.” Sakura hugged the blonde bomber.

“Well, I thought I might stick around for a while, the Akatsuki is getting kinda boring. All they want to do is collect tailed beasts. I could care less about the tailed beasts.” Deidara gave Sakura a once over.

“I heard you’re expecting, congratulations.” He pulled a small clay teddy bear from his pouch and handed it to her.

“How did you know?” Sakura was surprised, as far as she knew only Suna knew they were having a baby. She hadn’t even told her father yet.

“Sasori never came back from his last mission, ran off without an explanation. Leader Sama had Zetsu follow him. He never found Sasori, they have no idea where the man is but they did find and torture one of his his spies, who told them of your pregnancy.” Deidara hummed.

“Which means, by the look on your face. You had no idea Sasori had a spy in Suna, and realize there could be more.” Deidara said what they were already thinking.

Sakura turned to Temari. “Find them, whoever it is, find them and bring them to me.”

Temari jumped down from the wall and raced into the heart of the city.

“No one knew?” He asked once Temari had left.

“No one outside of Suna.” She said.

“Not even the Hokage?” He asked, surprised.

It was Sakura’s turn to be surprised, “Why would the Hokage need to know I’m pregnant?”

“Oh. I didn’t realize that was a secret too.” Deidara rubbed his chin. “It seems a lot of your secrets are no longer secrets.”

“So the nine tails…” Deidara hesitated, he hated being the one to give people bad news.

“No…” Sakura clenched her fists in understanding.

“Leader Sama went himself to get him. I’m sorry Sakura.” Deidara looked at the woman next to him with sympathy.

Sakura bit her lip and nodded. They could see Kisame’s battle with Gaara and his brother coming to a halt. Kisame was on his knees, Kankuro’s black ant trapping him in place. Gaara stood before him, sand spikes in the air. With one swift swipe of his hand, the spikes impaled the shark man, who fell over sideways and didn’t get up again. 

Gaara turned toward Sakura where she stood on the wall watching, their eyes met and he disappeared in a whirl of sand to reappear at her side moments later.

“Deidara, thank you for your warning. My village sustained very little damage because of you and my tailed beast remains safe.” Gaara shook Deidara’s hand.

“Gaara, there is a spy in the village, maybe more than one, I sent Temari to flush them out and to bring them to me once she finds them. The Akatsuki caught one of Sasori’s spies and tortured them for information, they knew I was pregnant and they know that...Minato is my father and that Naruto is my brother.” She told him.

“...and Gaara, Deidara said Pein the leader of the Akatsuki went to get the nine tails himself, he is going after Naruto.” Her eyes were fierce and her fists were clenched.

Gaara looked from his wife to the blonde. “I will go and assist them, you stay here with Temari and Kankuro.” He began but she stopped him with a shake of her head.

“You can’t go, you’re the one tail and they failed to capture you thanks to Deidara here.” She waved her hand at Deidara who grinned.

“You want me to abandon your brother and your father’s village? We have an alliance with the Leaf Sakura.” Gaara said.

“I am aware of that, but it is a poor plan to have the nine tails and the one tails taken and to have both the Hokage and the Kazekage killed. Suna and Konoha can’t both fall at the same time, one has to stand to help hold up the other!” She was near tears, it seemed like she was always near tears since she had become pregnant. It was more annoying than the morning sickness that extended past morning into the afternoon and sometimes evening.

“Then what do you suggest?” He asked her.

“A seal of course.” She smiled at her husband.

“For the entire village?” He asked, surprised at her suggestion. “Can you do that? You’ve found one?”

“Not me, but Minato can, him and Naruto. Naruto has the nine tails chakra, he has more than enough to activate the seal and yes, I found one.” Sakura had been spending most of her time in the Suna library since she had found out she was pregnant, devoting herself to researching Uzumaki seals.

Several boxes of books and scrolls had been delivered by Naruto a few weeks ago, family jutsus and other valuable information. She was only halfway through them but she had found a very difficult, very interesting seal that she thought might work.

“It’s a transportation seal that uses chakra exchange and change in form to stop time, or to slow it, sealing the object or a certain area of effect. The size of the object or the area of effect depends on the caster's chakra capacity. Naruto can cast the seal over Konoha with his nine tails chakra and it may just be enough to stop Pein the leader of the Akatsuki from taking his tailed beast.” She explained.

Gaara nodded and Deidara whistled his appreciation.

“Get me the reference you have on the seal Sakura and I will get it to Konoha as quickly as I can...I only hope it makes it in time.” Gaara looked West over the walls of Suna toward Konoha. “I’ll send it with my fastest hawk.”


	51. Chapter 51

Kakashi stood before the Suna royal family. “We didn’t get your hawk in time, by the time it got there it was already too late. The Leaf has been destroyed. We refused to give up our jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki to the Akatsuki and as a result, our entire village was leveled by the leader.”

“A man named Nagato, also known as Pein, the leader of the Akatsuki he...Naruto and him found common ground and he...used a forbidden unheard of jutsu from the Sage of Six Paths to restore the lives of all of those lost in the siege, including my own life.” 

“As you know the five great nations have called for a Kage Summit. The Hokage recognizes you tried to send help as soon as you were warned of the threat. As the Kazekage and a jinchuriki you are in even greater danger than the other Kages who will be attending.”

“Minato Namikaze the Fourth Hokage would like to travel with you as allies to the Summit, with your wife, his daughter and his son Naruto.” Kakashi bowed again and stepped back.

“His daughter?” Kankuro blinked in confusion, so he had heard the Hokage correctly when they had gone to rescue Sakura from his Uncle.

“Me.” Sakura said, ignoring the gasp from Kankuro she turned toward Kakashi. “We accept.”

“No.” Gaara stood up from the table they were sitting at. “You are with child Sakura, you can not go, it will be dangerous and you will not be able to utilize your chakra to defend yourself in your condition.”

“You’re, expecting, it wasn’t just a rumor?” Kakashi looked from Gaara to Sakura who nodded.

“The Hokage will be overjoyed. Congratulations to the both of you.” Kakashi smiled.

“I look forward to telling him our good news at the Summit, in person.” Sakura inclined her head to Kakashi’s congratulations.

“Princess, if I may…” One of the council members began to protest.

“No, you may not.” Sakura narrowed her eyes at the councilman and his mouth snapped shut.

“Please spend the night and rest. I will meet the Hokage on the border of Wind and Fire to travel north together in five days time. Dismissed.” Gaara pushed his chair back from the table, took Sakura by the arm and they disappeared in a cloud of sand.

“I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that argument.” Kankuro snickered to Temari.

“Sakura is Minato Namikaze’s daughter?” Temari turned to Kakashi who had yet to leave the room.

“I apologize. I thought you knew. It has become common knowledge much to the Hokage’s annoyance.” Kakashi told them.

“We didn’t know for sure, but I think our brother knew, he wasn’t surprised at all.” Temari said.

“He knew.” Kakashi nodded.

“That changes a few things, doesn’t it...no wonder Gaara doesn’t want Sakura to go.” Temari tied her fan to her back and pushed her chair in.

“What do you mean?” Kankuro asked.

“She’s pregnant with the Kazekage’s baby, and has both the Fourth Hokage’s bloodline and the Third Kazekage’s bloodline in her, the child will be born with multiple targets on it’s back.” Kakashi enlightened the puppeteer.

“Ah.” Kankuro understood now. “Wait the Third Kazekage?”

“It’s a long story.” Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“No wonder our Uncle wants her so badly.” Kankuro muttered.

“That’s not why. It might have been the reason he chose her as a student but that’s not why he wants her back, Kankuro.” Temari looked worriedly out the window. All the council members had left and she was alone in the room with her brother.

“Why then?” Kankuro asked, bewildered by all of the recent events.

“He loves her.” Temari said simply.

“What?” Kankuro didn’t understand.

“Evil has many faces...and love seems to bring out all of them, where Uncle is concerned.” Temari said cryptically, ignoring her brother’s idiocy. 

“Let’s go. There are things that need to be taken care of before Gaara and Sakura leave Suna.” Temari left the office with her brother close behind her.

“Sakura, you are not going, do you not understand how dangerous it will be traveling to and from the Kage Summit?” Gaara protested the moment their feet touched the stone floor of their bedroom.

“Of course I’m coming. I’m your advisor and your wife, not to mention the strongest shinobi in our village alongside you!” She was pregnant, not an invalid. Besides, she had other reasons for wanting to go with him.

“Did you not hear Kakashi, he spoke of your parentage as if it were common knowledge. Deidara was right, everyone seems to know your secrets now, there will be an even larger target on your back!” He was getting pissed at her now. Pissed she would willingly endanger their child like this, pissed she refused to listen to him as her husband and her Kazekage.

“That’s why I should be with you! If anything happens you will be there this time! It won’t be like last time, you’ll be there for me because I will be by your side! I want to go with you because I’m pregnant!” Tears slid down her face as she growled at him angrily.

“You’re...scared?” He understood now. She was afraid to be left alone, pregnant, with him so far away.

Sakura glared at him, she was scared but she wasn’t going to admit it out loud...he already knew anyway.

Gaara sat down on the end of their bed and watched his wife pace back and forth. He wasn’t concerned with her safety at the Summit as much as he was concerned with her safety going to and from the Summit. There was still a two day travel from Suna to the borders between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. That would be the most dangerous part of their journey.

Once they met up with the Konoha team, not only would the Hokage be there but he assumed his Anbu guard would be accompanying them as well, Team Ro, Kakashi Hatake’s team.

“Itachi Uchiha will cast a layered genjutsu over you. One of my Anbu will take your place beside me in a henge that looks like you and you will walk between Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha.” Gaara laid out his plan before her.

“If we are attacked you will not fight, you will hide until the fighting dies down and stay out of sight. This is not up for discussion. I’m speaking to you as your Kazekage.” Gaara could see the protest forming in her eyes so he crossed his arms over his chest and flared his chakra at her.

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She smiled at her husband sweetly.

Gaara’s eye twitched. She was already plotting something he knew it. “Sakura. If I must, I will seal you in our most secure prison cell until I return.” He warned her.

“Fine, I agree to your terms.” She sat down on the bed beside him and smiled a regular smile at him.

“You told Kakashi five days, it only takes two to get to the border.” She laid her head on his shoulder, her fingers tracing the outline of his vest.

“Baki is out of Suna on a mission right now, he will return in two days. I want him to come with us.” Gaara kissed his wife’s head wrapping his arm around her shoulder as she continued to play with the front of his vest.

“You want Baki to come with us?” She dropped her hand from his vest and looked up at him suspiciously.

“Yes. To babysit you.” Gaara tweaked her nose and she growled at him.

“I don’t need a babysitter Gaara.”

“I was joking. I want him there as extra security. Temari and Kankuro must remain in Suna in case anything happens to us. I would not leave our village without direction.” Gaara said seriously, kissing her head again. “If they can’t be with us I want Baki to be.”

Sakura nodded her head in understanding. “Okay.”

“I still have my Tsuchikage puppet you know.” She told him. “It doesn't use my chakra, it uses its own, aside from a few chakra strings, which are nothing and won’t hurt the baby.”

“How do you think the other Kage’s will react to you using the former Tsuchikage as a puppet Sakura?” Gaara groaned.

“No more than how they reacted when they found out you killed him.” She quipped back at him with a shrug.

“It was an act of war, making him into a puppet, was not.” They had had this argument before. 

He didn’t want her using the puppet for many reasons, one of which being that the puppet was a gift from Sasori, flaunting the fact he could enter and leave Suna as he pleased, and the second being that the Tsuchikage was a highly recognizable shinobi with Particle style jutsu. He would be a formidable tool, however Gaara worried about the reaction of the other Kage, who already had the Akatsuki to worry about.

Sakura shrugged again. “I have Kayda.” 

“I would prefer you didn’t fight at all until after the baby is born, and Kayda uses too much of your chakra not having chakra of her own.” Gaara brushed back a long lock of Sakura’s hair and kissed her forehead.

“You don’t have to worry. I wouldn’t do anything to endanger our child.” She said, kissing his kanji on his forehead like she used to do when they were kids. “Besides, Sasori's puppet will be there too.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” He frowned.

Two days before the attack on Suna, Sasori’s puppet had shown up with the same warning Deidara’s bird had come with, that the Akatsuki were going to attack Suna for the Kazekage’s one tail. He had been attacked on sight at the gates of Suna and had defended himself without causing any casualties or deaths. A feat in itself because the Suna guard had no reservations about killing him.

In the end, both Sakura and Gaara were called to the gates to speak with him. Both Gaara and Sakura noted the lack of blood and damage. When his name had fallen from the Anbu’s lips they had run to the front gates expecting a bloody mess, but there wasn’t one. There were only minor cuts and bruises, Sasori’s puppet spinning on its heel fending off multiple would-be killers...without hurting any of them seriously.

Gaar had put an end to the fight with a wave of his sand. His guards stood down and turned to look at the Kazekage and his wife. The puppet had bowed and delivered it’s message, then had turned to leave but Sakura had stopped him and asked him, if the real one was still alive, if Sasori was still alive.

“I have not found him, if he is and I have been looking for him.” Was the puppet’s reply. “I know I am not wanted here. I came to warn you, unaware the missing Iwa nin had already sent you word.”

Sakura had turned to Gaara who had narrowed his eyes at her, then sighed. “You may stay, if you like.” Gaara had said.

The puppet had bowed low, something the original never would have done to Gaara, placating and surprising him. “Thank you.” ...another thing the original never did, thank anyone.

“Notify the counsel of the puppet’s presence.” Gaara had waved his hand and he had left, pulling his wife with him and away back to the manse. The puppet followed.

Sasori’s puppet followed Sakura everywhere. Whenever Gaara went to visit her in the hospital, the puppet was there. Whenever Gaara came home from the office for dinner, the puppet was reading on the couch with his wife. Even on her evening walks around Suna, if Gaara couldn’t go with her...the puppet did.

“Why not?” She asked Gaara. The puppet was a perfect guard, he couldn’t die and would protect her relentlessly.

Sakura had grown accustomed to the puppet since he had come back to Suna. She found his presence calming and reassuring. It was like having the real Sasori back, the one who cared for her without saying, the one who shared her medical interests and was easy to talk to. She liked having him around.

“I know he isn’t the real Sasori but…” Gaara had expressed his concerns for the puppet before, but Sakura had laughed at him asking him if he was really jealous of a stick of wood. “...he acts so much like the real thing, that it almost seems like, he really is my Uncle. It’s the eyes I think, how he watches me. It gives me the creeps.”

“Well, it is him in a way, the puppet does have part of his soul sealed inside of it, so I understand, but he is also a puppet. You don’t have to worry Gaara. Ultimately, he isn’t real, no matter how real he may seem.” Sakura wasn’t sure if she was convincing her husband or herself.

There had been times since they had gotten back to Suna that she had been talking to the puppet and had forgotten that he wasn’t Sasori, had hugged him and kissed him once on the cheek, then ridiculed herself. It made her feel guilty and foolish at the same time. 

The puppet both confused and comforted her. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. Sometimes she felt as though the puppet knew how it made her feel and either pushed for more physical contact, or would leave abruptly to spare her feelings.

“I want him to come with us Gaara, he isn’t your Uncle, but he does have chakra and can manipulate it. If there is trouble, he will help protect me. Remember those missing nin?” She reminded him of an attack that would have ended poorly if the Sasori puppet hadn’t been with her at the time.

“It wouldn’t have been necessary for the puppet to protect you if you hadn’t gone off without telling anyone…” Gaara was annoyed. It was another example of her disregard for her own safety and that of their unborn child’s.

“He did protect me though. He killed all seven of them easily, like the real Sasori would have and we found out he had puppet scrolls on him and could control them like a true Puppet Master, using Sasori’s sealed chakra.” It had been a surprise which had pleased Sakura greatly and had annoyed Gaara. 

“Puppet scrolls he had failed to tell us he had.” Gaara didn’t like the puppet but couldn’t come up with a decent enough argument to banish it after he had given his consent. The damn thing had saved his wife’s life and their baby’s. 

Sakura suspected Sasori had done it on purpose to get a rise out of his Nephew but refused to broach the subject...Gaara was annoyed enough and he probably already suspected it like she had.

Gaara couldn’t deny that the puppet was an asset. He still didn’t trust it though. It had part of the soul of the man who coveted his wife in it, he didn’t trust it at all. However, he did trust it to protect his wife and she was right, if they were attacked there weren’t many who could defeat Sasori of the Red Sand, in puppet form or no.

“Fine, but he must be disguised as well. I don’t want other nations thinking Sasori has come home to Suna, he is still a missing nin and was a known member of the Akatsuki even if word has spread he left the organization, he was still responsible for collecting tailed beasts and aiding the organization.” He said.

“That’s reasonable. I’ll go tell him. He’ll want the next few days to prepare some poisons and to ready his puppets.” Sakura pulled her hand from her husband’s grasp but he pulled her back.

“You speak of him like he is the real Sasori sometimes, he watches you like the real one...have you noticed?” He asked her.

She had noticed.

“He isn’t real though Gaara. We both know that. He reminds me of him, before Rasa died, it’s nice having him here. It makes me think of the time before, before he…” Sakura looked down at her hands.

They had spoken of it a few times. She hadn’t lied to him. He hadn’t liked hearing it. He knew she still loved his Uncle, but they both thought he was dead. There was a small possibility he had survived but his injuries had been horrific...and she hadn’t been able to heal him, he had to have died, body or no body.

Both the Hokage and the Kazekage had sent multiple teams of tracking nin to search for the man, no one had found even a whisper of his whereabouts.

Sakura hadn’t told Gaara about the note her Tsuchikage puppet had come with. She didn’t know why but, she wanted to keep it to herself. Part of her was scared to tell him, part of her knew she ought to tell him because Sasori would be back one day, for her. 

She tried to tell herself now, with the world about to go to war, was not a good time. She tried to reason out that Sasori wouldn’t come for her now, there was too much going on and the other part of her reasoned now was the perfect time to come for her...with so much going on, it would serve as a wonderful distraction.

“It wasn’t him Gaara, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, he didn’t know what he was doing.” She said quietly.

“You forgive him? After what he did to you , you forgive him for hurting you, for trying to keep you from me for…” He couldn’t believe her. After everything he had done to get her back, after seeing her unconscious and naked on the bed with her skin bruised and bleeding and still she…

“I don’t know how to explain it but if you had certain parts of your soul taken from you, you would be a different person too Gaara.” There wasn’t anything else for her to say, she had said it all before, he would never understand. She wasn’t even sure she understood.

“I would never do what he did to you Sakura.” Gaara hugged her closer to himself.

“I know. I told him that and that’s why he...he…” She swallowed. “It doesn’t matter.”

Gaara grit his teeth. It did matter.

“I just want to forget about it. We have too many more important things to think about, like how the Summit will go and what the other Kages are thinking. Do we even know how many tailed beasts the Akatsuki have collected?” She asked.

“All of them, except the nine tail and the one tail.” Puppet Sasori spoke from their bedroom door.

Gaara growled. “You’re not allowed in here. Get out.”

“Temper temper nephew. Is the mantle of Kazekage too stressful or is it your breeding wife that has you in such a bad mood?” The puppet taunted.

“Sasori, stop.” Sakura slid off the bed and finger combed her hair.

The puppet watched her fingers slide effortlessly through her silky strands and Gaara watched the puppet.

“Why are you here?” Gaara asked the puppet, not bothering to hide his irritation.

“I hear we are going to a five kage Summit. I need to get into Sakura’s lab to make poisons for our puppets. She wasn’t in the hospital or the library, I thought I would seek her here in her rooms.” He replied.

“Our rooms are off limits to you. Do not seek her here without knocking and announcing your presence.” Gaara stood and kissed his wife, turning back to the puppet. “Know your place. Not even my Uncle would be allowed in our private rooms, and you, who aren’t even real, are definitely not allowed in our private rooms.” 

“My apologies, but you do know, I have no reproductive organs, so your fears of my taking her away from you...are unfounded.” The puppet smiled.

“I am not worried about something that I know is impossible. Do not flatter yourself, puppet.” Gaara really hated this piece of wood.

“You look worried.” The puppet cocked his head to the side in such an imitation of his Uncle that Gaara had to look at the thing’s neck to make sure the seam was still there, the seam between the moving pieces of the puppet...not the man.

“You are mistaken.” Gaara kissed his wife and disappeared in a flurry of sand.

“Does he need to worry my dear?” The puppet smirked.

“Come, we have things we need to do to prepare for the trip.” Sakura took the puppet’s hand and led him out of the room.

The puppet continued to smirk. She hadn’t told him ‘No’ and she was holding his hand.

Gaara walked down the corridor of the main Suna government building. His wife was right, there were more important things to worry about than a wooden puppet with his Uncle’s soul hitting on his wife...but he still didn’t like it.

Only two left, only two tailed beasts not under the control of the Akatsuki, him and Naruto.


	52. Chapter 52

“Does Gaara still use your poisons in combination with his sand dear?” Puppet Sasori asked Sakura as he ruffled her poison's cabinet.

“Yes.” Sakura thumbed through her antidotes pulling out the matching opposites to the poisons Sasori had pulled out to take with them.

The puppet watched Sakura as she worked, cataloging each poison and each antidote. She seemed to be coping well enough but he knew her, better than the boy and he knew she was still bothered by what he had done to her. She kept insisting to Gaara that he was a puppet, that he wasn’t the real Sasori but he knew...she knew.

“Why do you keep my circumstances from him, Sakura?” Sasori asked her.

“Because it doesn’t matter, it won’t change anything, the only thing that will change is how it will affect Gaara. Even if he knows, which he does, if I admit it, if he has that confirmation that your full soul is in that wooden casing...it will push him over the edge and you know it. You know this is best.” She didn’t bother to look up at him when she spoke.

“We are missing three antidotes to the poisons you wish to bring with us. I have five more of my own design since you first left, that I will be adding to my list as soon as I make them.” She closed the book she had been writing in and turned to the puppet.

“I don’t know exactly why you are here but I know you had no plans of leaving like you wanted us to believe. I know you have been watching us, Gaara doesn’t. There is no signature to your puppet but there is intent. I can feel it in the air, Gaara can’t. Perhaps it is...because it isn’t directed toward him but...I’m happy Sasori, don’t ruin this for me, please.” Sakura swallowed her doubts about speaking to him so openly as she looked at him. 

She had only said what had to be said. Sakura learned from her mistakes. Keeping someone like Sasori in the dark, caused so much more damage than being honest and up front with him. She had had enough misunderstanding for one lifetime.

“You know why I’m here.” His amber eyes shone bright as they looked at her.

“I know about your seal.” He told her.

“You’re going to have to be more specific.” She turned to face him fully, her green eyes sceptical. ‘He couldn’t possibly know of her back up plan.

The puppet’s lips curved into that familiar lazy smirk. “Do I? What seal could I possibly be referring to dear...I know you care nothing for the other nations, for the rest of the world and their...air stealers. You only care about those closest to you, those...touched by you and those who reach out to touch you in turn.” 

Sasori lifted his hand slowly, his fingers flexing as they made contact with her face. Sakura closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

“If there were no Five nations, if there was only...mankind...us, wouldn’t that be what you have always wanted, my dear?” 

Sakura opened her eyes, he had gotten closer to her, his eyes were right in front of hers, his breath...breath?

“Sasori you…” She stepped back, had she imagined it?

“Do you really think I would come back to you without a plan of my own, with nothing to offer you?” Sasori stepped forward, closing the distance between them.

“I have come to terms with...my nephew’s existence.” He told her.

“What will you do, Sakura? What’s your next move dear?” He smirked and kissed her cheek, stepping back, away and out the door.

He was playing with her...she knew it, but...

‘The hawk Gaara sent to the Hokage’, she spun on her heel looking at the door Sasori had just walked out of...impossible. ‘Nothing is impossible when it comes to that man’, she reminded herself.

Sakura swallowed hard and turned back to her work table pulling down the ingredients she would need to make the rest of the poisons and antidotes on her list. She pushed the puppet and the master from her mind as she worked.

Several hours later she sighed and wiped the perspiration from her brow, slipping the last antidote into its holder. She closed her eyes. Gaara was in his office, Temari and Kankuro were in the store houses...she couldn’t feel Sasori’s puppet of course but she had gotten into the habit of sending out her chakra anyway. 

Deidara was just outside of the walls practicing a new jutsu, she smiled at the thought. The blonde had really taken to Suna and Suna to the blonde, it was nice having him around. He brought a humor to her world that had been severely lacking before he had come into their lives. Gaara had assured her he would remain with Temari and Kankuro, to protect the village while they were gone.

Sakura wiped down her counter and set her beakers in the sink to be washed later. Removing her lab coat and dusting off her shirt she looked up to find the Sasori puppet watching her from the doorway again.

“Baki has returned early, my dear. In two days we leave, have you finished all of your preparations?” He asked her.

“I have.” She walked past him pulling the door shut behind herself and making the sealing signs.

“So have I.” He walked her down the hall and out the front door of the hospital.

Two days later, they left for the Five Kage Summit…

“Congratulations.” Itachi inclined his head to his friend barely an inch as she ran in between himself and Kakashi.

“Thank you Ita.” Sakura smiled up at him under the influence of his genjutsu.

“Watch your conversation.” Kakashi warned them. There hadn’t been any attacks or any suspicious travelers as of yet but they were only one day into their travels to the Summit after joining up at the border of Wind and Fire.

“Of course.” Sakura replied only slightly irritated.

“Thank you for your help.” She added with more sincerity.

Kakashi and Itachi nodded in full understanding what it was she was thanking them for.

Sasori’s puppet walked directly behind her, dressed in a full robe, the hood pulled up to cover his bright red hair from any close observers. It seemed the reports from his spies had been true, she had grown close to the Uchiha and his Konoha Anbu team. ‘That could be a problem’, he hummed to himself as he continued to listen to their conversation.

“We’ll stop for the night most likely before we cross over into the southern border of The Land of Earth.” Kakashi said conversationally.

“I don’t think we should stop, I think we should press on past the border into the heart of The Land of Earth where there isn’t anyone to challenge us for jurisdiction.” Sakura commented.

“Just because you and your husband took out Iwagakure almost single handedly doesn’t mean there aren’t others rising up to be the new Hidden Village in The Land of Earth, and what better way to establish their supremacy than to kill the ones responsible for ousting and eradicating the last Hidden Village?” Itachi laughed at her.

“I have no interest in some nomadic imbeciles who wish to make a name for themselves and neither does Gaara. We would just kill them all and move on.” Sakura huffed in annoyance.

“Not everyone is like you.” Kakashi laughed.

“You mean they spend too much time placating the weak instead of making progress in the world?” She countered smugly.

“Empathy is not a weakness Sakura. Remember?” Itachi patted her on the head.

“Maybe not but I have none for those who get in the way of my goals. Some people matter and some people don’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Who matters to you?” Itachi asked her curiously.

Sakura’s head jerked, she had barely kept herself from turning to look at the puppet behind her. “Gaara and Naruto, maybe my father and...a few others.” She let her voice drop.

Itachi had caught her gesture and knew she would have turned to look at the puppet behind her, he had his suspicions but studiously kept them to himself. It wasn't his business where the Princess laid her heart, she had chosen elsewhere, it was no concern of his…

Itachi looked to the front of the line where Yamato and Hayate were on either side of Gaara and Minato. Naruto was behind them watching his sister’s back. ‘What a strange dynamic we find ourselves in’, Itachi mused to himself. It seemed the Uchiha weren’t the only odd family with deep lines of betrayal, mistrust and broken loyalties.

“I’m pleased you took me up on my suggestion Kazekage.” Minato said as they ran over the terrain effortlessly.

“Thank you for extending it to me Hokage. My wife was pleased as well.” Gaara glanced at the shinobi who was in a henge to look like Sakura and they nodded without speaking.

“Yes.” Minato looked back over his shoulder to where the real Sakura ran in between Kakashi and Itachi.

“Perhaps we should make camp soon, as not to over stress her in her condition.” Minato suggested.

Gaara nodded, “So you know, she wanted to tell you in person, one of her...arguments for my allowing her to come.”

“I wondered. I was hoping that was the case and not...that she didn’t wish to tell me or thought that it wouldn’t be important to me.” Minato jumped over an awkward branch landing hard then leaping to the next again to resume their conversation.

“Not at all Hokage.” Gaara reassured the man who clearly cared for his wife, his daughter.

“Hayate, notify the rest of the team we will be stopping for the night at the next village.” Minato turned to the man on his right who nodded and dropped back to relay the Hokage’s message to the rest of the group.

Three days later the Kazekage and the Hokage crossed through the gates of Howling Wolf Village for the Five Kage Summit.

“Finally!” Sakura smiled and stretched her arms up over her head turning to ward Itachi. “Get this genjutsu off of me Ita.”

“I’m surprised Sakura, you can break this genjutsu easily, it is only a four layered one after all.” He smiled but released it for her nonetheless.

“I can’t use my chakra, remember?” She rubbed her blooming tummy.

Sasori’s puppet stepped up beside her and took her arm sliding it through his, leading her into the inn and away from the rest of the group.

Gaara watched, as did Minato, as Sakura and Sasori walked up the steps of the inn they would be staying in for the Summit.

“Is that wise, letting that thing escort her around like that?” Minato asked his son in law.

“I trust her.” Gaara watched his wife disappear into the inn with the puppet, a pain growing in his chest.

“I don’t trust him. Taking parts of your soul and splitting them up, putting them into canisters like...ingredients is...inhumane.” Minato was worried for his daughter but their relationship, while growing, was still overshadowed by years of his absence, whether it had been his fault or not.

“It makes me uneasy as well, but like Sakura said, we have other things to worry about and ultimately no matter what I do, if I try to prevent him from associating with her or try to take him from her, she will see it as an insult and get upset. I trust her.” Gaara said again.

Minato watched the crease in the Kazekage’s brow and wondered if the man was trying to convince himself or him more. He had trusted her before and she had ….well, what would the puppet do anyway, he tried to reason it out. With both her husband and her father there, the puppet wouldn’t have the audacity to try anything...surely…

“Would you like some water my dear? Or perhaps something to eat?” Sasori’s puppet knelt down beside Sakura holding her hand in his.

“I’m fine thank you Sasori.” Sakura smiled at the puppet. She had stopped calling him a puppet he had noticed and now simply referred to him as Sasori. It pleased him, she really had forgiven him it seemed.

She leaned back into the chair and lifted her feet up onto the footstool in front of her.

“How is he? Our son?” Sasori pet her hair while she closed her eyes.

“You don’t know if the baby is yours or Gaara’s, Sasori, don’t speak like that.” She kept her eyes closed.

“It’s mine.” He said placing his hands over her abdomen.

Sakura opened her eyes when she felt his chakra flowing into her body, around her womb caressing the developing child within. He was looking down, at his hands, as if he could see their baby. The look on his face was, heart wrenching. Sakura bit her lip. He really thought it was his, did he know something she didn’t?

“This Summit Sasori, if it doesn’t go well…” She was worried.

“You don’t need to worry my dear, I have taken care of everything, we will be safe, those you love, our child, we will all be safe.” He assured her.

“What have you done?” She asked sitting up in the chair, his hands falling to rest on her knees.

“What I have always done since I first took you on as my student.” He brushed her hair back from her face as Gaara entered the room. “Protect you.”

“Protect her from what Puppet?” Gaara asked, moving to his wife’s side and knocking the puppet’s hands from her knees.

“Anything and anyone who poses a threat to her and our child.” Sasori’s puppet rose and stood before Gaara and his wife.

“You look at me with those eyes of yours, don’t think I don’t know what you are thinking, but I forgive you, because one day, soon...you’ll thank me.” Sasori’s puppet looked back down at Sakura and her slowly growing stomach. 

“I will try to hold them off as long as possible dear, at least until after our child is born, that is my desire at least.” Sasori’s puppet walked out of the room leaving Gaara clenching his jaw, his fingers digging unconsciously into his wife’s shoulder where his hand rested.

“Gaara, what has he done, do you know?” Sakura looked up at her husband who briefly closed his eyes struggling for composure.

“That isn’t just a puppet is it Sakura?” Gaara looked down at his wife.

“It is but it isn’t.” Sakura looked up at Gaara. “I don’t know for sure but he is a puppet, he is just a different kind of puppet, unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

“I have no idea what he has done.” Gaara looked out the window to the right, Minato was walking toward the inn.

“Your father doesn’t trust him, Sakura, neither do I. I will not tell you to stay away from him, but please Sakura, please be careful.” Gaara squeezed her shoulder as Minato knocked on their door.

“Where’s Naruto?” Sakura asked, when only Minato had entered the room.

“Looking for a ramen stand. He says that ramen is essential to baby development and has gone out looking for one to bring you some ramen for his little niece or nephew.” Minato laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

Sakura smiled. Minato and Naruto brought something akin to sunshine into her life, she wondered why she hadn’t seen that before Minato had helped get her back from Sasori. Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to. It was a new world for her in her pregnancy, she was seeing everything in a new light. She wanted them to be a part of it, wanted her child to have them close by, a family...she never had but could have...all of them could have together.

What had Sasori told her? ...those you love, we’ll all be safe? ‘Oh Sasori, what have you done and why wouldn’t you tell me’, had he learned nothing from their ‘misunderstanding ‘ before? Has she?

“When is the meeting, we are a day early I think, is there word on the other Kages?” Sakura asked, putting her feet up once more on the footrest.

“We are just waiting for the Mizukage, the rest of us are here.” Gaara told her.

Two days later…

“Since you fail to see reasoning...I declare this the start of the Fourth Great War. I, Madara Uchiha, declare war on ...the World as you know it.” 

“I will use the power of the eight tailed beasts I have already collected to complete my collection and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi over the world, thus, bringing everyone under my control.” 

The man had announced the Fourth Great War, just like that. Told them his plan and had teleported away...just like that.

Sakura ran back through the woods in between Itachi and Kakashi again. She had sensed the immense chakra influx before anyone else, and before Madara had arrived at the Summit she had placed her transportation seal on Gaara who was sitting in front of her and had thrown the other seal to Naruto who had used his chakra, had made the hand signs and teleported both himself and Gaara to the safe hold she had arranged with him unbeknownst to Gaara or his father before the meeting.

“I’m impressed with your skill in sealing Sakura, to think, you learned all that from the scrolls we sent you.” Minato had dropped back to run beside his daughter displacing Kakashi back down the line.

“I can learn jutsu from scrolls easily, I always have.” She said without arrogance.

“Impressive isn’t she, but you can’t really be proud of her, not being there for most of her life. I on the other hand...can and am.” Sasori interrupted their conversation from behind.

“...and is she as proud of you as you are of her?” Minato asked the puppet.

“You’d have to ask her now wouldn’t you?” Sasori countered, unperturbed.

“Enough. I need to get to the safe house just past Iwagakure. No doubt Naruto has already explained things to Gaara, but he will be worried. Shukaku has already told him we are on the way. Sasori and I will split off from the main group and head back to Suna, Naruto can head to Konoha from Suna or stay with us, whichever you prefer.” She told her father.

“How will you get to Suna alone like that, would it not be best if we all go together?” Minato asked her.

Sakura shook her head and smiled. “You forget, Sasori has safe houses all over the world, they are all linked with teleportation seals. Naruto will be back in Konoha before you probably.”

“I don’t like the idea of you splitting off from us with only that puppet for protection, Sakura.” Minato continued to protest her decision.

“I appreciate your concern father, but there is no need for it, come Sasori.” She leapt to a different tree heading West, Sasori followed.

Minato stopped and watched his daughter run off with the puppet, alone. “I don’t like that.”

Itachi stood beside his Hokage and made several quick hand signs. A crow appeared before them, “Follow her.” Itachi pointed to the receding pink in the distance.

“Caaw!” The bird flew up into the air following Sakura.

“I will let you know when they enter the safe house, safely Hokage Sama, once there they will be fine, you know that.” Itachi tried to reassure his Hokage.

“Thank you Itachi, but her destination is not my only worry.” Minato started running again resuming their travels.

“I know Hokage Sama.” Itachi said quietly.


	53. Chapter 53

Sakura used her blood to unseal Sasori’s safe house just past the former village of Iwa. Sasori followed Sakura down the narrow hall to the first room where both Gaara and Naruto were waiting for them.

“Sakura, why didn’t you tell me you had planned this with Naruto?” Gaara demanded.

“You wouldn’t have agreed to it, and Madara Uchiha would have both of your tailed beasts right now and halfway to casting his Infinite Tsukuyomi, because my idiot brother wouldn’t have let him take you without a fight. That’s why.” She glared at him.

“I tried to explain it to him, Sakura. I might not have done a good job of it though.” Naruto hugged his sister.

“It’s okay Naruto I’m sure it has more to do with my not telling him than it actually happening.” Sakura knew Gaara hated surprises like this and after everything they had done with and to one another, he hated not knowing what was going on around him.

“We did what we thought was best, what we knew would work.” Naruto tried to explain again, sensing the tension in the room.

“How did you know, how did you know that Madara Uchiha would declare war on the shinobi world Sakura?” Gaara was glaring at the Sasori Puppet behind her.

“I didn’t. I knew that he or someone other than Pein was collecting the tailed beasts though, that Pein was not the real leader of the Akatsuki.” She said. “We had to have a back up plan Gaara, don’t you understand that?”

“He told you, didn’t he?” Gaara nodded to the puppet behind her.

“If he did, he saved your life, because it gave me the information I needed to protect you, when I knew you would refuse to take the steps needed to protect yourself or my brother.” Sakura countered without actually answering his question.

“Here, I got this for you before the meeting, just in case.” Naruto handed her a storage scroll.

Sakura took it and pressed a little chakra into it and a large bowl of hot ramen popped into existence on the table in front of her and she laughed. “Thank you Naruto.”

Sasori snorted behind her and Gaara reluctantly smiled at the blonde who clearly loved his sister and their unborn child very much.

“So when that kid comes out, if it’s a boy you’re going to name him Naruto right?” Naruto laughed.

“No.” Both Sasori and Gaara said at the same time, but only Sakura laughed.

“Good grief, let’s get some rest, we can leave in the morning and still make it back to both Konoha and Suna before everyone else.” Sakura walked over to the shelf and pulled a pair of chopsticks from the cup, sat down and started eating her ramen.

Naruto sat down beside her and watched her until she rose and grabbed another bowl putting some noodles and broth in it for him.

“Thanks sis!” He grinned at her and began to slurp.

“So, this is another one of your escape rooms is it?” Gaara had looked around the safe house before Sasori and Sakura had arrived and wasn’t pleased. It seemed the man really did have a place if not multiple places around the known and unknown world all to himself...and Sakura.

“Not one of my more impressive ones, you destroyed my best one.” Sasori said unperturbed. “And my closest one to Suna.” He raised a brow at Sakura who shrugged.

“You deserved it.” She said simply.

“Be that as it may, there are others, not on that map of yours dear.” The puppet hummed to himself.

“Should things go poorly with this new plan of the Kage’s and this new Allied forces, what will you do?” The puppet asked Gaara.

“This is the time to band together, to form an alliance like the world has never seen...against one universal foe!” The Raikage banged his fist down on the table in front of the other Kages.

“I agree”, Gaara spoke first, followed closely by Minato and the Mizukage.

“We need one leader though, we are all leaders in our own rights but this isn’t one village this is all of the villages there should be one Leader of the Alliance. I vote for it to be the Raikage.” Minato declared setting his own fist down , knuckles flat, on the table in front of him.

Gaara nodded as did the Mizukage. “A vote then.” The Mizukage said.

All four Kages agreed and the Raikage was made the Leader of the Alliance.

“We will need a Supreme Commander out in the field of battle.” MInato suggested.

“It should be you, The Yellow Flash of Konoha.” The Raikage submitted Minato for the job.

“No, I think it should be someone younger with the influence of youth who has proven to remain calm under pressure who has overcome his own demons. It should be the Kazekage, he has come farther in growth as a Kage than any of us.” Minato stood and raised his hand in the air.

“All in favor?” Minato looked from face to face.

“Aye”, all four Kages rose to their feet.

“We will not fail, we can’t, the world’s fate rests with the Allied Forces.” Gaara said solemnly.

“If the Allied Forces fail Gaara, what will you do?” The puppet insisted.

“There is nothing else we can do, this won’t fail, never before has the entirety of the shinobi war banded together as one.” Gaara said with a confidence he himself didn’t quite feel.

“Never before has the world seen the likes of Madara Uchiha as the ten tailed jinchuuriki Gaara.” Sasori countered. “You must have a back up plan, or humanity is lost. You only have one chance with a genjutsu like the Infinite Tsukuyomi, one chance or we’re all done for.”

Gaara snorted and crossed his arms.

“I do not fault you for your poor opinion of me Gaara. I will be the first to admit I did not handle ‘this’...well. However, I am not the spoiled little brat standing as the Kazekage refusing to believe in the possibility of defeat, no matter how small, and rejecting the possible need for an alternative plan...am I?” Sasori drove the nail home.

“...and you do, I assume, have a plan puppet?” Gaara’s voice was low, he didn’t like this. 

He felt the invisible strings attached to his body, to his mind, as though his Uncle had planned each step of his life one right after the other for this moment...he knew he hadn’t, knew it was impossible but at that moment, with those words, he thought, ‘Perhaps’.

“Of course, I always do. Like I told Sakura, there is no need to worry. I’ve taken care of everything.” The puppet smirked.

“Everything?” Naruto asked.

“Yes.” Sasori said it with such confidence the blonde almost believed him. “So that means, you knew? About Madara’s plan?”

“It was an unconfirmed rumor of sorts, but yes and I have planned accordingly.” The puppet told them.

“What is your plan Sasori?” Sakura asked, her bowl empty, her chopsticks on the side.

Sasori hesitated. The more information he told them, the more likely they would either fight him on it, or try to sabotage him.

“It is both a very simple plan my dear and one I hope I do not have to use, but it will save the one I love, and the ones you love.” He said again.

“That doesn’t really answer the question though.” Naruto scratched his head confused.

“He doesn’t want to tell us. He knows we won’t agree to it.” Gaara said quietly.

“The one you love, me. The ones I love.” Sakura turned to Gaara and Naruto. “Sasori do you mean…” She couldn't bring herself to say it.

“Yes.” He said without remorse. “I will save our family, Gaara included, and yours.”

“What about everyone else?” Naruto was shocked.

“I imagine they’ll be trapped in Madara’s Infinite Tsukuyomi.” Sasori’s puppet said without feeling.

“You can’t do that.” Gaara couldn’t believe this. He knew his Uncle was...cold and cruel but this was...on a completely different level.

“What about Itachi and Shisui?” Sakura asked.

“I will see that they are taken too.” Sasori placed a hand over hers. “If you like.”

“This is wrong, to decide who will live and who will die?” Naruto was starting to get angry.

“They won’t be dead, they will be in a genjutsu.” Sasori pointed out. “I’m not the one casting the genjutsu either I’d like to remind you and this is only, if the Allied Forces, fails.” The Puppet said smugly.

“Let’s get some rest. Like you said.” Gaara pulled Sakura’s chair out for her, taking her by the hand and leading her out of the room.

Sakura sat down on the futon in one of the backrooms of the safe house and watched Gaara pace back and forth. “Did you know?” He asked her.

“No.” Sakura hadn’t known, he hadn’t told her his plan. “I’m surprised he told us at all.”

“Do you think it is his real plan?” Gaara asked his wife.

“Why would he lie about it?” She asked a question of her own.

“So we wouldn’t try to stop him, to foil his true agenda?” Gaara hypothesized.

“It does sound like something he would do but let’s just say he is telling the truth Gaara, how would he even manage to do such a thing?” She thought of her seal, the area of effect seal she had gotten from the scrolls Minato and Naruto had sent her.

‘He would have had to place seals on everyone he meant to save, that’s impossible right?’, she asked herself. ‘He has no chakra signature in his puppet form, not even Itachi Uchiha would see him coming’, she knew, he had already placed his seals on them...and she had just asked him to place his seals on Shisui and Itachi with her innocent words tonight.

“He wouldn’t have told us if he hadn’t already completed his preparations, you know that as well as I do Sakura.” Gaara ran his fingers through his spiky red locks and fell back onto the futon.

The last few days had been stressful. Sakura had slept beside him every night and yet he still couldn’t fall asleep. Instead of waking her and disturbing her rest he had paced the empty hallways of the inn. 

“I’m going to walk around, this is a decent sized place. I’ll be back later.” Gaara kissed Sakura on the cheek and closed the door behind him.

“This Infinite Tsukuyomi or whatever it is, will it really affect the entire world? Who can cast such a powerful jutsu , how would they even do it?” 

Gaara heard Naruto’s voice and walked down the hall to find him sitting with Sasori’s puppet in one of the sitting rooms before a fire.

“Madara will use the moon to cast his demonic genjutsu over the world. It is unavoidable, even if you close your eyes, the light is said to be so bright and piercing, no one on earth will be able to hide from it.” Sasori’s puppet told the blonde.

“Then how will you save us?” Naruto asked confused.

“We will live underground, where light can not penetrate for two years, until the genjutsu has passed and it is safe to the surface.” Sasori said.

“Two years.” Naruto muttered. 

“Your safe houses…” Naruto began.

“Are mostly caves, hidden away, deep within the ground or mountains and connected by my blood seals.” Sasori nodded. “I’ve repaired the one your Father and my nephew destroyed and replaced the seal for my onsen, for Sakura.”

“You’ve been planning this for years? How long?” Naruto asked, amazed.

“For the last three years I have searched for a solution, for a way to break the genjutsu, to stop the man I thought was Tobi of the Akatsuki, but is really Madara Uchiha. I found nothing, so I began researching how to survive it.” Sasori continued.

“I found only one way. To move underground, under the seals of the ancient Uzumaki and wait for the genjutsu to fade. I have estimated it to endure for two years.” he said.

“What if it's more than two years?” Naruto began to worry.

“I have prepared for that as well.” Sasori almost laughed.

Naruto was different from Sakura but his curious mind, his quick tongue, those were the same, they really were related.

“It seems like you’ve thought of everything but oh.” Naruto paused.

“You’re not as cruel as you let on are you Sasori or puppet guy whatever, are you?” Naruto grinned at the puppet. “You didn’t limit the people you could save because you wanted the others to die, it’s because you only have a certain number of these safe houses, right?

“Sasori is fine boy, and no, but my Nephew believes what he wants. I’ve given him no reason to think anything but the worst in me.” Sasori said with complete honesty. 

“You are correct. I can only save roughly ten people and have enough provisions for all for the next two years. There are other means of acquiring necessities but I am not sure what the full extent of the genjutsu will be only that it will not affect puppets.”

“...and Sakura?” Naruto prompted.

“Sakura...has always only seen the best in me, even when I could not see it myself.” Sasori said gently.

Gaara turned on his heel and walked back to the room he was sharing with his wife. He was ashamed.

“You knew he was there?” Naruto turned his head to the door Gaara had been standing in moments ago.

“Sometimes it is easier to tell someone something difficult if they don’t think you know they can hear you.” Sasori shrugged.

“You know something, you’re not too bad of a guy.” Naruto grinned at Sasori who scoffed at the compliment.

“Everything I do is for her.” Sasori rose and walked out of the room leaving Naruto to himself before the fire.

“Yeah but, does she know that?” Naruto asked the fire.


	54. Chapter 54

Sakura was asleep by the time Gaara returned to their room. Quietly he unblocked his belt and pulled his shirt off over his head. She had started a fire in the fireplace. He added another log and made the hand signs for Yang Shukaku who popped out on the bed and cuddled up next to Sakura, content to see her again. They had agreed not to let Shukaku out at the Summit for fear of drawing the Akatsuki to them.

“You heard didn’t you Shukaku?” Gaara pulled his boots off and untied his pants.

“I heard.” Shukaku lifted his head and spoke quietly so he wouldn’t wake Sakura up.

“Was I wrong then, about him, all this time? Gaara asked the tanuki for his opinion.

“It’s hard to say. Maybe we were all wrong. Can we really point the blame and pin it on any one of us?” Shukaku said wisely.

“No. I suppose not.” Gaara pulled the covers back from his wife’s body gently and slid in beside her.

“Will she forgive me?” Gaara stroked Sakura’s pink hair bringing a thick lock to his nose and inhaling her scent with his eyes closed.

“She always does, as you forgive her.” Shukaku set his head down moving over a little so Gaara could lay closer to their wife.

“He loves her, as much as we love her, doesn’t he?” Gaara asked.

“He has proven it. We know as much as him, love is sometimes madness, is it his fault we had her by our side to keep us grounded when he did not?” Shukaku advocated.

“No, it isn’t. I understand now and am ashamed, Shukaku.” Gaara closed his eyes as he ran his palm up and down the soft skin of his wife’s shoulder down to her hip.

“The other tailed beasts Gaara.” Shukaku began.

“The nine tails will be with Naruto but the others, I don’t know Shukaku. We will do what we can, I promise.” Gaara moved against his wife, cupping her hip in his palm and kissing her neck.

“Thank you.” Shukaku murmured before closing his eyes.

“I love you Sakura, to the point of madness...what would I have done, if you had been taken from me like that, what did I do when you had left me for only three days...I’ve been a fool.” Gaara buried his face in his wife’s neck and closed his eyes.

The morning came and after breakfast Sakura, Gaara and Sasori said their goodbyes to Naruto who walked to the corner of the room and pressed his bleeding thumb to the seal and the Konoha safehouse on the map Sasori had given him with the four other maps and instructions Sasori had given him.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Gaara asked his puppet Uncle.

“Tell you what?” Sasori pretended ignorance.

“That you weren’t limiting the number of people to save because you wanted only certain people to beloved, but because you couldn’t save everyone, that you had researched for years how to defeat the Infinite Tsukuyomi but found nothing and so then started looking for a way to combat it, only to realize you had to hide from it and wait it out?” Gaara asked.

“What?” Sakura looked from her husband to Sasori.

“You didn’t tell her?” Sasori cocked his head at his nephew, that was new, the boy told her everything.

“It didn’t matter.” Sasori said shortly, stepping into the seal in the corner of the room where Naruto had vanished moments ago.

“It didn’t matter that I thought you were being selfish and needlessly cruel, that I thought you were a monster?” Gaara didn’t understand his Uncle.

“No.” Sasori bit his thumb and they all watched and blood welled up from the bite.

“How can you bleed?” Sakura’s eyes went wide.

Sasori smirked and pressed his thumb to the floor and the Suna safehouse on the map and disappeared.

“Let’s follow him.” Gaara drew out his own map that Sasori had given him, bit his thumb and did the same, followed by Sakura.

Sakura stepped out of the seal in the Suna safehouse and grabbed Ssori by the arm pulling him around to face her. “How can you bleed, puppet?”

“This body is real.” Sasori told her. “The cylinder is still the power behind the movement and chakra is still needed to make this body function. I'm still a puppet, only one of living flesh and not wood.”

“The seam in your neck though.” Sakura ran her finger over the seam and gasped. “Release!”

The seam faded.

“Why deceive us?” She asked.

“If I had come to you in a body of flesh and bone declaring I had found a way to use my cylinder and move this lump of flesh, would you or your husband have believed me?” He asked them logicly.

“No.” Gaara answered for them. “I would have thought it was the original lying to us, come to take Sakura back.”

“Exactly.” Sasori turned and walked out of the back room to the front room.

Sakura stood there stunned. “How did he...he would have had to grow a new body, how is that, I mean…” 

“Let’s go home, Sakura, we need to speak with the council immediately. We have a war to prepare for.” Gaara pulled her across the room and into the front room with his puppet Uncle.

“Right, priorities.” She mumbled.

Three weeks later...the world went to war…

Shukaku sat on Sakura’s shoulder as he relayed news from the front. 

“The masked man claiming to be Madara Uchiha was really a man from Konoha named Obito Uchiha, one of Kakashi Hatake’s old teammates thought to have died in the third great shinobi war.”

“This man, Obito made himself into the ten tails with only a partial amount of chakra derived from Naruto and Gaara, it is a partial transformation but he had become the ten tailed jinchuuriki Sakura.”

“The real Madara Uchiha has been reanimated, by this Obito and they plan to fuse together releasing Madara from the caster, Obito, he will be reborn using the Sage of Six Paths rene rebirth. I fear the end, Sakura, is near.”

“If Madara Uchiha becomes human again, he will call forth the god Tree and cast his genjutsu, if he does that, it will be too late. For us all. What should I tell Gaara for you, my wife?”

Sakura looked out over the walls of Suna into the desert. “Tell them, all of them with seals to come to the agreed upon safehouse, if the god tree rises from the earth, before it is too late.”

Temari and Kankuro had seals and maps on their person as well as Minato, Naruto, Shisui, Itachi and his little brother Sasuke whom he would not part with, which left one more, one more person they could save. 

They had left one opening for their baby, in case they had been born before the war had ended but now, it wasn’t needed. It would have to be someone from Suna. 

Sasori would come before the others as planned, he was probably already at the Suna safe house, their meeting point. He had left the battle when he had decided it was already a lost cause, last week and had double checked every safe house available to them for stores and weaknesses. All they needed now, were occupants.

Word came in the form of Shukaku around midnight, the war was lost, they were coming. 

Sakura found Deidara out on the training grounds.

“Deidara.” Sakura called out to the blonde.

“Sakura.” Deidara walked over to her, his face drawn. 

“So this is the end yeah?” He looked up at the red moon.

“For the world as we know it yes.” Sakura took his hand and pulled him after her.

“Come, I have something to show you.” She didn’t look back, she couldn’t bear to say goodbye, not yet.

Fifteen minutes later they stood before the cave outside of Suna. “Give me your hand Deidara.”

Deidara held his hand out to her and she cut a small incision in his finger near the tip and moved his hand to the door of the cave. The door opened when she placed her own bleeding finger over the invisible seal.

“Whoa, what is this un?” Deidara followed Sakura into the cave, the door closing behind them.

“This is the beginning of the new world Deidara.” Sakura tried to smile but the tears slipped down her face one after the other.

“What?” Deidara was confused.

“Sakura!” Gaara ran from the back room and drew his wife to his chest crushing her against his armour. There was dirt and sand all over him but she didn’t care she was just so glad he had made it in time.

“We made it just in time, the moon, it was cast and it changed the moon Sakura.” Tears slipped down Gaara’s face as he held hers in between his hands.

“Madara won, the Infinite Tsukuyomi has been cast.” Itachi slumped into a chair at the work table and laid his head on the table. The whole right side of his face was burned.

“Where is everyone else? Where is Minato and Naruto?” She asked, worried.

“They’re coming, they were right behind me.” Gaara pressed his lips to hers.

“I’m sorry Sakura.” Naruto’s voice came to them from the doorway, his clothes were torn and his face was bloody but he was there, their father behind him.

“Itachi?” Shuisui and Sasuke had arrived.

“Here Shisui.” Itachi stuck his hand up in the air not bothering to raise his head.

“Thank kami you guys made it.” Temari and Kankuro hugged Sakura and Gaara as they pushed their way into the room.

“It’s good to see we’re all here.” Sasori called over the heads in the doorway. “If we could all move to a larger home we could talk and take care of the injured in a more comfortable fashion.”

Itachi rose from the chair and came to stand beside his brother and Shisui.

“If you’ll please open your maps and find the Konoha safehouse in the Valley of The End, one at a time make their way back to the seal you came through and meet up there.” Sasori instructed.

In slow motion, one at a time, they rose and moved to the back room. One by one they disappeared until it was only Gaara, Sasori and Sakura left.

“I’m sorry Uncle. Thank you for, doing this, for all of us. It will take some time but the others, they will thank you, eventually.” Gaara bit his thumb and pressed it to the seal and disappeared.

“Thank you Sasori. I’m sorry for everything, for doubting you and for being so impulsive.” Sakura placed her hands over her tummy. “Thank you for protecting us, all of us.”

“You know I only did it for you, and our child.” Sasori cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently.

She nodded, bit her thumb and stepped in the seal pressing her thumb to the ground.

Sasori followed with one last look around his first safe house with a small smile.

“Will it really be okay Sasori?” Sakura asked, her head against Gaara’s shoulder as she sat on his lap in the sitting room.

“It will.” He moved to add another log to the fire.

Sasori walked across the room to the desk and pulled a sheet of paper from the drawer, made a few hand signs and pressed his chakra into the paper. He had decided to keep them all as close as possible, in case they needed to resurface before the allotted time for anything. He never told them why, or his reasoning for only him being able to resurface, but they hadn’t asked either.

“The Uchiha are here.” He made a little mark on the map. 

“Minato, Naruto and the Hyuuga.” He made another mark on the map. 

“My brother and sister and the bomber.” He marked Temari, Deidara and Kankuro down.

“You said ten people, Sasori, did you not count yourself because you don’t need to eat?” Sakura asked and he nodded.

“I won’t be taking up any resources.” Which is why he had switched his body over before he had divulged his plan to the rest of them.

“When our baby is born there will be another mouth to feed but I have made accommodations for that after the first six months of his life.” Sasori said absently as he put the piece of paper back into the desk drawer.

“What kind of accommodations?” Gaara ignored the fact Sasori had called the baby his and Sakura’s for the sake of information acquisition.

“Sakura will become like me and no longer need sustenance.” He said, turning to meet Sakura’s eyes. 

“Only until you wish to breed again dear.” He amended.

Sakura choked, “What?”

“I have three vessels prepared for you dear. Bodies. Like mine.” He clarified.

“You remember your core don’t you?” He asked her conversationally.

“Yes but Sasori that’s, I mean, you can do that for me?” She asked curiously.

“Of course dear, it was part of my back up plan. It only makes sense to back up your back up if that too fails. I had no guarantee any or all of you would revolt, die or try to stop me from my original plans.” He said patiently.

“Show me.” She slid off of her husband’s lap.

“Sakura.” Gaara stood up.

“This is a new world Gaara. We don’t know how long we will be down here. If he has a way to preserve me, like that.” She waved a hand at Sasori’s body. “I want to do it, after our baby is weaned, it will be important to save as much food as possible.”

Gaara nodded slowly, he still didn’t trust his Uncle completely but remembered how he had felt when he had first found out about his plan. “Okay.”

“I’m afraid only Sakura and I can go to the room Nephew, you see it is a sealed room within the safe house. I had to take extra precautions to make sure they weren’t found.” Sasori explained.

“They?” Gaara asked.

“Our bodies of course.” Sasori tucked Sakura’s arm in his and walked her out the room and down the hall, past his workroom to the dead end hallways by the fourth exit, in front of a door with a hidden seal.

“Bite your thumb and press here my dear.” Sasori bit his thumb and they pressed the seal together.

Sakura stumbled a little but Sasori held her firmly against him.

“Sasori.” His name moved her lips as she exhaled and looked around the room at the tall tanks lining the outer walls.

“Is that me?” Sakura walked over to the first tank and wiped the condensation away with her sleeve to look at herself.

“Yes dear, it’s you.” Sasori watched the woman he loved look at his greatest creation, herself.

“She is beautiful Sakura, just like you.” He came up behind her and kissed the back of her neck, moving her hair aside and dropping it over her shoulder to hang down her front.

“So this is how, you grew a clone, a real flesh and blood clone so then, it really is you?” She tilted her head back to look at him.

He wrapped his arms around her and moved his body up against her back. “Yes, it’s me.” He breathed out over her ear and she shivered. “I still have our wooden seves of course.”

“When did you do this?” She looked around the room again, these tanks had been here for quite some time by the looks of it...were there more?

“Does it matter love?” His hands moved around to the front of her shirt and started to unbutton her top.

“What are you doing?” She whispered, making no move to stop him.

“I’m going to undress you, then I’m going to enter you from behind and make love to you while I hold my unborn son in my hands.” He unbuttoned her last button and her shirt fell open. 

Sakura swallowed as he slipped her arms from her shirt and started to untie her pants.

“Look around you my dear. You and I will live forever, Gaara will not. It is my son you carry, not his.” He let her pants fall to the floor at their feet.

“The old world is coming to an end as we speak, this is a new world, our world...my world, and you will be my queen.” Soft little kisses were laid across her shoulder as he moved her gently to the table at the end of the room and bent her over, his hands across her belly protecting their child.

“I do not begrudge my nephew’s affection for you. I will share you with him for as long as he lives, but after, you will belong to me and me alone.” He untied his pants and pushed them down. Sasori rubbed his tip over her wet and entered her slowly.

“You were mine first.” He moved against her.

“You will be mine forever.” He pulled out and pressed into her again.

“Ungh, Sasori.” She closed her eyes.

“Yes dear, that’s it, good girl.” He rose up behind her and thrust into her hard, his hands on her hips.

‘Your Uncle is making love to our wife’, Shukaku growled.

‘I know’, Gaara sighed.

‘What do we do?’ Shukaku protested.

‘What can we do, she loves him Shukaku’, Gaara laid down on the couch and waited.

‘She loves us too’, Shukaku protested. He knew Sakura loved him and Gaara both.

‘We will share her then’, Gaara had already had three weeks to think about this possibility. He and Shukaku had suspected this would happen if Madara had cast his genjutsu but had hoped, for many reasons, the Allied Forces would win.

‘She is our wife though’, Shukaku continued to whine.

‘She would have chosen him over us, if things had been different though, you know that Shukaku’, Gaara wasn’t telling the tanuki anything new.

‘But...you’re just giving up?’, Shukaku didn’t understand.

‘I already share her with you, it doesn’t matter’, Gaara closed his eyes willingly away the headache he knew was coming.


	55. Epilogue

_Only Naruto’s nine tails and Gaara and Sakura’s one tail stayed with their hosts in captivity. It had taken three long years for the Genjutsu to fade._

_Sasori would transfer his core to his puppet body and return to the surface periodically to check on the world above but would come back dirty with word that nothing had changed. Sakura suspected there was more to tell but she never pressed him. She had learned to trust him, they all had and over time his past misdeeds as well as their own, were forgotten._

_Sakura’s baby, a boy named after the first Kazekage Reto, was born seven months into their stay underground. Temari had come to help Sakura and had wrapped the little boy in a Suna muslin blanket she had made before the war and had presented him to everyone gathered in their house._

_Sasori, Sakura and Gaara had come to a mutual agreement of respect and love. Shukaku had stopped muttering and eventually gave in after Reto had started demanding the tanuki sleep with him in the crib Sasori had made him._

_Temari and Shisui were married by Sakura’s father Minato and had a little girl named Myuo._

“Sasori’s been gone for a long time this time, do you think everything is okay?” Temari asked, little Myuo on her lap chewing on the wooden rings Sasori had made her.

“I wouldn’t worry, maybe it’s a good sign?” Sakura tried to hide her fears but her eyes darted to the seal in the corner of the room every five minutes giving her away.

Sasori returned just before breakfast the next morning.

“Sasori! I was so worried!” Sakura ran up to him and kissed him, little Reto toddering on her heels grabbed onto one of his wooden legs.

“It’s over, the genjutsu has been broken, it’s gone, the god Tree Sakura, let me show you.” Sasori turned back to the seala nd disappeared.

Sakura paused then very slowly bit her thumb and pressed her blood to the seal. Little Reto held onto Temari’s leg as his mother disappeared.

It was cold. Sakura blinked and looked around, there was snow on the ground. 

“Here.” Sasori threw a huge fur over her shoulders and hugged her to warm her.

“It’s winter Sakura.” Sasori was smiling.

“I’d lost track.” She said dumbly.

“Look!” He pointed to the half moon still in the sky with the rising sun.

“It’s a half moon and it’s white!” She was astonished. “Oh thank kami!” Tears streamed down her face and she quickly wiped them away.

“Yes Sakura, welcome to the new world.” Sasori kissed her and hugged her to his body.

“Let’s tell the others.” She ran back to the entrance of the cave and disappeared.

An hour later everyone stood side by side in their winter clothes that they hadn’t had to wear in years and looked up at the naturally blue sky.

“The god Tree, it’s…” Gaara asked.

“Gone.” Sasori replied.

_Years later they would find the remains of the god Tree, hacked to pieces at the base, remnants of a foul poison around the stalk. No one ever said anything, no one needed to._

_Sasori, Gaara and Sakura had two more children besides Reto, one more girl and one more boy. Gaara passed away at the old age of ninety four, happy and surrounded by family._

_The remaining tailed beasts that were released from their mental imprisonment when the god Tree was cut down were never sealed away or used as weapons again, but Shukaku, remained with Sakura at his own request, claiming tanuki mate for life, no matter how long that life may be. After much discussion and persuasion, Sasori had agreed to have half of Shukaku sealed inside of him, for Sakura’s sake._

_Temari and Shisui welcomed Itachi into their marriage and had four more children who grew up and had more children and then more and more and soon, the world was thriving once again._

“Are you happy my dear?” Sasori wrapped his arms around his wife as she stood on their back porch looking out across the ocean that was their backyard.

“I am happy Sasori.” She smiled, raising her chin so she could kiss his mouth.

“I told you, long ago love, there is only you and only me, forever.” He ducked his head and buried his face in her hair.

“If only I’d listened to you.” She laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes I took out the dialogue in the summary...it just goes to show you never know how the story will end up...


End file.
